


Between Stars

by ofcorsetstrash



Series: Between [3]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Aliens, Angst, Crack Treated Seriously, Dark Comedy, Gray Versus Gray Morality, Immortality
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-28
Updated: 2017-04-18
Packaged: 2018-07-10 18:16:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 11
Words: 16,808
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6999220
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ofcorsetstrash/pseuds/ofcorsetstrash
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Luke has known about his sister for as long as he can remember. They talk in their dreams. He tells her all about Alderaan, about the gossip and politics of the Empire and the Core Worlds, and about their mother, Padmé.</p><p>She tells him all about the desert world of Tatooine, about Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru, and about training with Old Ben Kenobi to be a Jedi, just like their father.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Dead Man Walking

**Author's Note:**

> Jarring, heavy steps rang hollow, metal on metal, echoing through the vast empty space. Ben wasn't sure where he was going, but he knew what was behind him. This dream had played itself out many times. He knew he wasn't fast enough to escape, or strong enough to fight, but maybe…
> 
> Another set of footsteps joined his own, creeping up, crawling up his back to burrow into his skull.
> 
> Ben stopped, and the other steps halted as well. With no small amount of trepidation, Ben turned. “Who’s there?” he called into the shadows. It was a foolish question. He knew exactly who, or what, was there.
> 
> Slowly, it stepped forward to let itself be seen. Draped in black robes with a mask obscuring its face, it was a figure that had haunted Ben all his life. With a dreadful sense of inevitability, the creature took off its mask and smiled.
> 
> “Hello, Ben,” said Kylo.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “Did you ever hear the tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise?”
> 
> “No,” said Anakin.
> 
> Palpatine nodded. “I thought not. It’s not a story the Jedi would tell you. It’s a Sith Legend. Darth Plagueis was a Dark Lord of the Sith so powerful and so wise, he could use the Force to create… life.”
> 
> Through sheer willpower, Anakin managed not to roll his eyes in Palpatine’s face.

Luke looked out over the desert. The two suns were setting red, the sky painted a stunning array of indigos and purples. Wind ruffled at his hair, and he brushed it back out of his face.

 

“The sunset was beautiful. I wanted to share it with you.”

 

Luke smiled at Leia. “Thank you,” he said. “I needed this.”

 

Leia pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. “I could feel your distress,” she said simply, though Luke could feel her affection pouring through their bond. She was happy she could help him. “Is something going on?”

 

Luke sat next to her on the sand. “It’s the Empire,” he said. “We think they are building a massive superweapon, capable of destroying an entire planet in a single shot.”

 

Shock and horror painted Leia’s face. “That’s…” she shuddered. “Why would anyone build such a thing?”

 

“Control,” Luke said simply, shrugging. “Power. To rule through fear and intimidation.”

 

Leia scowled, and looked back out over the desert. She was the most beautiful girl Luke had ever seen in his life, far beyond even the brightest jeweled princesses and ladies of all the Core Worlds. Leia was a desert creature, sand-blasted and bleached and parched and possessing a fierce strength that shone through her entire being. Her eyes were dark gray, like the horizon across from the dawn. She was a storm thinly veiled in the guise of something that looked human most of the time.

 

The sisters called her Walking Storm Child. Luke thought the name suited her perfectly.

 

Spritely and quick, she darted around to kneel in front of Luke, a look of delight in her eyes. “I want to show you something else,” she said. “Old Ben said I was finally ready.”

 

In the way of dreams, the object didn’t really come from anywhere. She simply pulled it from behind her where before there was nothing. “A lightsaber,” she said with almost uncharacteristic reverence. “It was our father’s lightsaber. Ben said that he would’ve wanted me to have it.”

 

Luke bit the inside of his cheek. “I… I wish he were alive.”

 

The sisters laughed.

 

Luke and Leia stared at each other for a moment in disbelief. The sisters had been listening to their conversation, of course. They  _ always _ listened to the twins. It was just the way they were. But the sisters never really responded. They were so much a part of the Force that they hardly seemed to ever pay attention to anything else, beyond, perhaps, their immediate surroundings and those they called the walking children. 

 

Certainly, the sisters never  _ laughed _ .

 

“That was… strange,” Luke said slowly. “Maybe… they laughed because they don’t really understand what death is?”

 

Leia nodded, the look on her face perplexed. “Maybe we could try asking them?”

 

“You think they’d answer?”

 

She shrugged. “It’s worth a shot, isn’t it?”

 

Luke shrugged back. “I guess.”

 

As one, the twins reached for each other, linking their hands and minds. The action was simple, like reaching for a glass and taking a drink, something they had done for so long it no longer required real thought. Together, they reached out to the sisters.

 

The Viem. Beings created to embody the Force itself in physical form. Scattered across the galaxy, buried deep in the wild places, the unknown, the forgotten. Luke felt like there were probably even a few hidden in the Core Worlds, but their song was muffled in the abundance of life on those planets. Luke and Leia had always called them the sisters, though they weren’t entirely sure why.

 

They had a few guesses, though.

 

As the twins called to them, the collective consciousness of the sisters seemed to tremble, and then reach out to greet them.

 

_ Welcome. _

 

Love. The sisters felt like pure love. Gentleness and warmth and a radiant peace that defied description.

 

_ Our walking children. _

 

The sisters didn’t really use words. They sent feelings, impressions and images. Like Leia’s name: Walking Storm Child was an image of Leia striding through the desert, the wind playing with her hair as it billowed into great roiling clouds of sand and dust and lightning, wild and free and carrying her. Like Luke’s name: Walking Star Child was Luke roaming through space, each step carrying him from star to star, the void and ethereal light winding itself through him and around him, his eyes alight with nebula and the burning of suns.

 

It was difficult to ask the sisters a question. The best Luke and Leia could manage was putting together an image of the lightsaber, a sense of  _ father _ and  _ death _ and an attempt at sounding curious over the sound of the sisters’ laughter.

 

It felt as though it took a few minutes for the sisters’ minds to parse through the message. They struggled in particular over  _ father _ and  _ death _ , since they had no real concept of mortality, and sexual reproduction was completely baffling to them. Luke tried again, this time with an image of his mother, her sad smile and kind nature mixed with the sense of being held and belonging.

 

That got the sisters’ attention very quickly.

 

For a moment, Luke and Leia thought they would be overwhelmed by the response the sisters sent them. Flashes of images danced before them: a beautiful person with golden hair and eyes like water wandering across a deep sky. Walking Sky Child.

 

Then the images changed. There was sadness, loss, bound to images of fire and darkness spreading across a great city where the streets ran with blood. Spiraling away from that, the sisters sent a sense of quiet, of waiting.

 

_ Sleep. Silence. Healing. The dragon rests. Lingers. Soon eyes will open. _

 

_ Walking Sky Child will walk again. _

  
Luke gasped, sucking air into his lungs as he sat up, safe in his own bed in the Royal Palace on Alderaan. Trying to rub the last of the sleep from his eyes, he reached out to illuminate the chronometer by his bed. It was still an hour before he needed to get up, but he doubted he would be able to get back to sleep. Not with the image of Leia holding a lightsaber and facing down the Emperor’s Enforcer fresh in his head.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anakin wracked his brain for a response that would satisfy the Chancellor. He hoped the look on his face conveyed something appropriate. Confusion? He could work with that.
> 
> “You mean…” he said slowly. “He could create artificial life? Like a droid, but biological? That’s pretty… neat.”
> 
> A condescending look crossed Palpatine’s face. “My dear boy,” he said. “Darth Plagueis could keep those he loved from dying.”
> 
> Anakin nodded, trying to figure out where Palpatine was going with the conversation. Obviously he hadn’t been talking about the sisters, as Anakin had first thought. “That sounds useful. Saving people from death.”
> 
> Palpatine was staring at Anakin. Bantha shit. He’d probably said the wrong thing again. He always managed to stick his foot in his mouth around politicians. Especially Padmé. It was nice of her to put up with him anyway.
> 
> “Anakin,” the Chancellor said, his voice flat as his expression. “I can teach you how to save your secret love from dying.”
> 
> Anakin blinked in alarm. “What? Why? Is someone planning to attack her? Is she sick? How do you know about her? What’s going on?”
> 
> Chancellor Palpatine sighed and rubbed at his forehead like he was getting a headache.


	2. Silence Is My Best Defense

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He woke in a tomb, and slowly clawed his way back to the light.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “Tell me, _General_ ,” Kylo Ren said the title the way he always did, drawling it out lazily, as if Hux should somehow be insulted by his own impressive rank. “Have you ever, in your life, stood on a frozen lake on a bright day?”
> 
> Hux tried. He really did. But there was just _something_ about Ren, something chaotic that pulled apart his seams without effort. So try as Hux might, he could not help but respond to Ren in ways that he himself did not anticipate. He wondered sometimes if Ren did.
> 
> “No, Lord Ren,” Hux said without looking away from the displays of the command bridge. “I have never experienced that for myself.”
> 
> Ren made a humming sound that crackled through his mask. That infernal mask. Three and a half years of enforced co-commandership with the Knight and Hux had never seen him without it on. Most of the time he didn’t care. “Perhaps on my next mission I will take you along, make you stand there on the ice, leave you for an hour or so.”
> 
> Hux felt his eye twitch. “You will do no such thing, Ren,” he said, his voice cold. “What would that even accomplish? Besides adding something new to my list of itemized reasons you are never to be allowed full command of a battleship?”
> 
> Ren tipped his head and rolled his shoulders. His movements were always fascinating, and they were the main reason Hux wasn’t completely convinced the man was actually a droid programmed for destruction under all that fabric and the helmet. No droid could mimic that fluid motion, that feline kind of dangerous grace that didn’t even come naturally to many humans. Maybe a cyborg.
> 
> “To make you… feel something.”
> 
> In spite of his best efforts, Hux rolled his eyes. “Ren, just because I don’t inflict my emotions on others, like you do, doesn’t mean I don’t possess them.”
> 
> “No, no.” Kylo Ren waved a hand through the air and slunk around to stand in front of Hux. Stand was the wrong word. Ren gave the impression in his stance of _leaning,_ though there was no physical object he was leaning _on._ The Knight certainly was in a strange mood, though Hux admitted to himself that all of Ren’s moods were strange ones.
> 
> “A specific emotion. Let me…” Ren lifted a hand to his own sternum, or where his sternum was located if he was actually human. “You are standing on the lake. The sun is bright and reflects off the snow to burn at your eyes. It is calm, though, maybe the barest breeze moves the air. The sky is deep above you. Nothing moves. It is silent.”
> 
> Hux could see it all in his mind, as if Ren had taken a paintbrush to the inside of his eyelids. It was all he could see when he blinked.
> 
> “And then,” Ren said. “You hear it. Low. Like thunder below you. The sound of the ice beneath your feet cracking.”
> 
> “Fear,” Hux said. “You want me to feel fear?”
> 
> Kylo Ren tipped his head a little closer to Hux’s face. The man really had no sense of appropriate personal boundaries. “Fear is such a small word,” he said, his voice low and mechanized. “It is inadequate. The feeling I want you to feel is something primal. It lashes out at the mind on nothing but instinct. You feel the fear, the brief flash of pure, unadulterated _panic_ even if you _know_ there is no real danger, if you measured the ice you stand on and you _know_ that it could support an AT-AT with ease. Knowledge, logic, intellect have no say on that instant of mindless terror that grabs at you fast as lightning, even if for only that long.”
> 
> Hux felt a sneer cross his face as Ren finished his little speech. He shouldn’t indulge the Knight, he really knew better than this, but he heard the words in his own voice. “What would be the point of that, Ren?”
> 
> Kylo Ren stepped back and turned his head, though his body still oriented itself at Hux. He looked out the bridge window of the _Finalizer_ at the nearly completed superweapon.
> 
> “Because then you would know, General,” he said quietly. “What it is I feel every time I look at your Starkiller.”

Through the haze and smoke, Luke saw a shadow move. It resolved itself into a figure, a tall man all in black who darkened the room simply by entering it, cape swirling behind him as troopers scattered out of his inevitable path.

 

Darth Vader. Luke had seen holos of the Emperor’s Enforcer, but had never met him in person. He towered over everyone else, and the thin durasteel of the ship hardly seemed strong enough to contain him.

 

“Lord Vader,” Luke said, his voice cold. “I should have known.”

 

* * *

 

 

 

“These pampered Core World Princelings know little of what suffering is. I’m certain that he will reveal everything to us during a thorough interrogation.”

 

Luke clenched his jaw and tried not to look afraid.

 

“Lord Vader, the plans are not aboard this ship, and no transmissions were made. An escape pod was jettisoned during the fighting, but no life forms were on board.”

 

Vader stared at the officer in stoney silence for a moment. “Go on,” he said, his voice deep and menacing.

 

“Um…” The officer began to look even more nervous.

 

Vader stepped closer. “So the plans must be…”

 

The officer’s face grew pale. “In… In the escape pod?”

 

Vader waited a bit longer. “And thus, your next action should be…”

 

“To find… find the pod?” the officer fidgeted. “And retrieve the plans?”

 

“And then report directly back to me.”

 

“Yes, my Lord Vader.”

 

Luke fought down his rising panic. Those plans had to make it to the Rebellion, or many would die. With a fire born of desperation, he reached out to the person who had always been there for him in the back of his mind.

 

_Leia!_

 

There was no immediate response as he was led down long corridors to a small, cold cell.

 

_Leia? Can you hear me?_

 

_Luke?_

 

He nearly went limp with relief.

 

_Leia, I need your help. You’re our only hope…_

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

The cell door hissed open, and Luke leapt to his feet, all the defiance he could find in himself gathered up to use. Through the door stepped Vader, the Emperor’s attack animal, as many called the man.

 

“I don’t normally handle prisoner interrogation.” The words oozed out of Darth Vader between his forced mechanical breaths.

 

Luke watched as Vader simply stood there, neither of them moving for a while. He found himself shifting his weight back and forth, nervous energy building as Vader continued to not do or say anything.

 

Finally, the Knight spoke. “Tell me what you have done with the plans.”

 

Luke ground his teeth together. Another feather-dusting of fear settled on him. He’d never been… tortured. He had no idea how long he could keep his secrets, how much time he could give Leia to get the plans to the Rebellion.

 

“How strange… the Force around you.”

 

Luke blinked. “I’m sorry, what? The Force?” Leia had told him about the Force, had helped him feel it around him, thrumming through his veins, through Leia, through the stars and sisters, but very few people in his waking life had ever even mentioned it.

 

“The Force, or something in it… compels me. It’s even stronger than… What was your name again?”

 

“Luke. Luke Amidala.”

 

Vader was silent for a few minutes more. “Luke,” he said slowly, like the name was difficult to pronounce. “Amidala. I-”

 

The door hissed open behind Vader. “My Lord,” said a voice. “The Grand Moff requests that the prisoner be brought to the bridge.”

 

* * *

 

 

 

Luke was led onto the command bridge, his hands bound in front of him, the ominous shadow of Darth Vader just behind him, like a black hole in the Force, drawing everything into darkness and nothingness. With a small start, Luke recognized the figure waiting on the bridge.

 

“Governor Tarkin,” he snapped. “I should have expected to find you holding Vader’s leash.” He wished he didn’t sound so frightened, his voice small and young. The words he had tried to make sound strong and full of willpower instead seemed to come out as a pathetic whine in his own ears.

 

Tarkin scoffed. “Spoiled and petulant to the last. You don’t know how much I enjoyed signing the order to terminate your life. Thank you, Lord Vader.” With a stiff bow, the Knight left the room. Luke felt abandoned, oddly enough.

 

“I’m surprised,” Luke forced the words out between his teeth. “That you have the courage to take responsibility for my death.”

 

“Prince Luke,” the gaunt man smiled. “before your execution I would like you to be my guest at a ceremony that will make this battle station operational. No star system will dare oppose the Emperor now.”

 

“The more you tighten your grip,” Luke hissed. “The more star systems will slip between your fingers.” He was shivering so hard his jaw was starting to ache from the effort of hiding it.

 

Tarkin’s sour face twisted into a sneer. “Not after we demonstrate the power of this station. In a way, you have determined the choice of the planet that'll be destroyed first. Since you are reluctant to provide us with the location of the Rebel base, I have chosen to test this station's destructive power... on your home planet of Alderaan.”

Fear scraped against Luke’s bones. “No,” he whispered. “No! You can’t! Alderaan is peaceful! We have no weapons! You can’t possibly-”

 

Tarkin stepped closer, invading Luke’s space. “You would prefer another target? A military target? Then name. The. System.”

 

Luke stared at the man, helpless, his mind spinning, panic threatening to drag him down into darkness. Desperate, he reached out to the sisters for strength.

 

“I grow tired of this,” Tarkin continued. “So it will be the last time. Where is the Rebel base?”

 

Over the comm came a voice. _“Approaching Alderaan.”_

 

The sisters whispered light back into Luke’s mind.

 

“Dantooine,” he breathed, letting his head lower as if in defeat, the fear he had felt still on his face. “They’re on Dantooine.”

 

Tarkin smiled, and turned to his next-in-command. “Continue with the operation, Commander. Fire at will.”

 

“What!” Luke’s head snapped up. “No!”

 

“You are far too trusting, your highness. Dantooine is too remote to make an effective demonstration. But don't worry. We will deal with your Rebel friends soon enough.”

 

“No, please! Wait!”

 

Luke found he couldn’t scream. Everything hurt too much.

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

Leia moved through the katas again, the lightsaber an extension of herself as she flowed through the movements, blocking the shots of the small training remote. Room on the _Millennium Falcon_ was limited, but Leia was careful not to hit any of the walls. It would be inconvenient if the rust bucket hurtling through hyperspace were to puncture from her training.

 

“Again.”

 

She sighed, centered herself, and let her body guide itself, the motions like a dance.

 

“About five more times should be good for today.”

 

Leia flicked a glare over at Old Ben, sparing some of her ire for the scruffy-faced scoundrel watching from the corner.

 

“Wipe that smirk off your face or I’ll come over there and do it for you,” she said.

 

Captain Solo put his hands in the air in mock surrender. “I wasn’t smirking at you, Sandy.”

 

“Don’t call me that, you bantha-kriffing-”

 

“Leia,” Old Ben interrupted. “As creative and colorful as your descriptions of this young man are, you should try-”

 

Ben stopped, his face pale. The wave of pain hit Leia a split second later. The old man toppled to the floor, his limbs seizing in agony, and Leia found herself curled into a ball on the floor, Solo’s frantic reaction a distant event as Luke’s agony swept over her mind, along with the deaths of billions, their lives snuffed out in an instant. Gone.

 

* * *

 

 

 

Luke was shaking, barely able to hold on to consciousness through the shock. His family and friends had been on Alderaan. Queen Organa and her Prince Consort. His mother, Padmé Amidala.

 

A thunderous _crack_ reverberated through his mind, over all of his senses. Dark water seeped up from a deep well full of unspeakable eyes. Through the vision, he could hear the sisters, and beyond them a cry. A cry of suffering unlike anything he had ever known.

 

_Wakes. Walks. Hungers. The great black dragon walking sky child._

  
_The child is awake again._

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kylo tipped his head back to look at the stars, the same as he did every night. He could hear the stars during the day, as well, but it was nice to see them as they sang, as well.
> 
> Leaning back on the sweet grass, Kylo felt the heat of the day drifting off of the ground into the sky through his body. The hot smell of the desert sand mingled with the scent of the heavy flowers of the oasis. He pulled the long braid of his dark hair over one shoulder to fiddle with the end of it. It was nearly down to his waist, now. The night was quiet and serene, just like every night in this paradise had been for the last… how long had it been? Five years? Ten? He’d lost track of the galactic standard calendar. It wasn’t any use when the only companions you had were-
> 
> His thoughts halted. In the song, there was a dissonant note. He had rarely heard such a thing, and it had never been a sign of good things in his life. Scrambling to his feet, he took a deep breath, as if such a thing could help when it came to the Force. It might, actually.
> 
>  _What is it?_ he whispered to the sisters. _What’s wrong?_
> 
> They didn’t answer him, not right away. The dissonance built, growing harsher and harsher until he felt like his head was about to split from the strain of it. This was very very bad…
> 
>  
> 
> _Quiet. The child is lost._
> 
>  
> 
> He staggered. He’d never felt the sisters upset like this before. He didn’t think they paid enough attention to anything to care this much.
> 
>  
> 
> _Ours. The little one._
> 
>  
> 
> Their voices rose to a scream that had him clutching at his head in pain. Kylo grit his teeth and tried to reach out, to get a better answer. He didn’t understand.
> 
>  
> 
> _We lost the child._
> 
>  
> 
> _Walking Fire Child. Fallen silent._
> 
>  
> 
> A horror gripped around his heart, and he tried to walk back to the house he had built for himself, but his legs weren’t quite listening to him.
> 
>  
> 
> _Ben._
> 
>  
> 
> He froze. And the voices of the sisters went mute. A shudder ran through his frame. Never… never had they been completely silent before. And the name they had just said…
> 
> Panicking, he all but ran to the tiny emergency comm unit he kept. It was old and probably out of date, but he powered it on with a fear growing in him like he’d never known. Something truly horrific must have happened.
> 
> “Attention,” he said into the comm, unsure if it was even really working. His voice sounded terrible, and he realized he wasn’t sure when he had last spoken aloud. “Is anyone listening? I need to contact someone. This… might be an emergency? Can anyone hear me?”
> 
>  _“We hear you,”_ came a voice through the comm. He nearly collapsed in relief. _“Who is this? This entire sector is supposed to be uninhabited.”_
> 
> That had been rather the point. “My name is… Kylo.” He grimaced. He’d almost used the wrong name. A name that didn’t belong to him anymore. He blamed the sisters.
> 
> Glancing around the small room, Kylo spotted the storage trunk, covered in dust. With a flick of the Force, he opened the lid so he could see inside. Sure enough, it was still all there. The robes. The armor. The helmet. And on top, the lightsaber.
> 
> A dark smile crossed his face. Maybe the galaxy could withstand a little chaos again.


	3. Forever and Always

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shmi’s Lullaby
> 
> How do you capture the wind on the water?  
> How do you count all the stars?  
> I have found you, sweetest love of my soul.  
> Sleep.  
> Sleep.  
> When you wake, I will be here.  
> Forever and always my baby you’ll be.

Luke shivered. He wondered why for a moment. The cell wasn’t really that cold. Then he realized that it was fear. The twisting anxiety building in his gut had gotten so bad that he could no longer keep his hands from shaking unless he sat on them.

 

The door hissed open, and Luke looked up. Leia was tearing the trooper helmet off as fast as she could, freeing her long blonde hair to spill over her shoulders. All of the air in Luke’s lungs left him in a rush. His sister was even more beautiful in real life than in their dreams. Without thinking, he rushed over to her, wrapping his arms around her and burying his face in her hair. They were both weeping. Tears of unspeakable joy. It was as if a part of Luke he hadn’t known was missing had been given back to him, this twin of his. Their mother had told Luke that she’d sent Leia to train with Ben on Tatooine as soon as Leia started showing signs of Force sensitivity, too young for either of them to remember. Luke had never really questioned that, but finally having her back, Luke wondered if perhaps that had been the wrong choice, separating them.

 

Leia laughed, her throat still choked from tears.

 

“What’s so funny?” Luke asked.

 

She grinned up at him. “You’re shorter in real life.”

 

* * *

 

 

Leia and Luke sprinted across the hangar towards the _Falcon._ Captain Solo and Chewbacca were already there, looking rather nervous at all the blaster fire Luke and Leia were fleeing.

 

“Let’s go!” barked Solo.

 

“Did Ben make it back?” Leia asked as she and Luke nearly collided with the ship.

 

“The old man?” Solo said. “No, he hasn’t-”

 

A thunderous detonation rumbled through the air. The floor of the hangar rocked, listing to one side for a moment. Smoke began to pour through one of the blast doors.

 

“What the hell?” coughed Solo. “What was that?”

 

“Ben!” Leia screamed as she spotted her mentor through the smoke. He stumbled, his lightsaber in his hands. For a moment, he looked up, at Leia. The sorrow and pain behind his eyes filled her up. He’d often looked at her like that, when he thought she wouldn’t notice. Like he had failed her long ago, and nothing he ever did could restore things to how they should be.

 

The old Jedi turned away, then, to face his opponent. Through the haze in the air, Leia first saw a red beam, steady and painful to look at, and then a shadow amassed around it, a black void in the shape of a man. No. Ben had said he was hardly a man anymore, more a machine.

 

Darth Vader.

 

The hiss of his forced breathing filled Leia’s head. She felt frozen, like she would never be able to feel anything other than the night this monster carried with him.

 

“Well?” said Darth Vader, his voice low, his words slow and filled with a burning dark. “Do you see your handiwork, Kenobi? Do you see what I have become? What you made me?”

 

Ben shook his head. “I never-”

 

“You took… _everything_ from me!” Vader seemed to gather more darkness around him, pulling at Leia with the gravity of his power. With dreadful steps that caused metal to creak and warp, Vader walked towards Ben, dragging the tip of his lightsaber through the floor as he advanced.

 

“Ben!” Leia cried out, fighting against Luke’s hands holding her back. “Ben, run!”

 

The two warriors swung their sabers, and the air crackled where they met. They exchanged blows, their movements slow, but Leia could feel the amount of the Force they were swinging at each other in addition to their blades.

 

“You are weak, old man.” Vader's voice boomed, shaking through Leia's bones.

 

Ben shook his head sadly. “You cannot win this fight.”

 

Leia struggled again against Luke. _Luke!_

 

_I can’t let you go, Leia!_

 

_I… I won’t interfere. I can tell… I’m nowhere near strong enough to make a difference in this fight. Just let me go!_

 

“Alright,” Luke breathed, and dropped his hands. Leia felt his pain, his heart yearning for contact, for someone he could hold onto, now that his home was gone. She took his hand in hers. Honestly, she didn’t mind if they could help each other.

 

Stormtroopers started edging into the room, their missions forgotten in the blazing power of Ben Kenobi and Darth Vader’s fight. For a moment, it looked as though Ben could gain the upper hand, his swings sending Darth Vader back a few steps.

 

They looked at each other. Leia was startled to see tears streaming down Ben’s weathered cheeks into his beard. He shook his head slowly, as if waking up from a dream.

 

“My friend,” he said quietly. “My brother. I…”

 

With a furious roar, Vader swung his saber down at Ben. Leia saw it. She saw the look on Ben’s face when he made the decision not to move.

 

She started screaming before Ben’s robes fell empty to the floor. Never before in her life had she felt rage and grief like this. Not her own, at least. It took Luke and Chewbacca both to keep her from running out there, from drawing her own saber, her father’s saber, and attacking Vader herself.

 

“I’ll kill you!” she cried. “I swear I’ll kill you!”

 

Vader’s mask turned to her, empty and soulless. He didn’t move as the _Falcon_ started to take off.

 

There was a voice in her head, though, for a moment. A voice she had never heard before. It was strangely gentle, and a little confused, like a child that had just woken up.

  
_Leia?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shmi’s Lullaby (Reprise)
> 
> How do you measure this kind of rain?  
> Where can I go to find you?  
> I will wait, and be here when you return.  
> Forever.  
> Forever.  
> Wherever you go, I will still love you.  
> Forever and always my baby you’ll be.


	4. Hold Back the River

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Force is created by life. It flows between everything. You, me, the stone, the water, the ship.
> 
> 8/16/16 Edit - Just patching over a plot hole. Don't mind me.
> 
> 3/1/17 Edit - Figured out exactly when Leia's vision needs to be sorry for the slight alteration

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “He’s working as a mercenary.”
> 
> “A mercenary? Really?”
> 
> “Apparently Force-sensitive bodyguards can charge a lot of money for their services.”
> 
> “Huh. He never struck me as caring all that much about money.”
> 
> “Well, he is on his own, now. I’m just glad he’s found a real paying job. It’s more than I expected, to be honest.”
> 
> “Wait, how did you find this out?”
> 
> “He was at the Senate building, hired on as a bodyguard for some old Commandant from Arkanis.”
> 
> “He was at the _Senate_? Kriffing hell, it’s a miracle the building is still standing.”
> 
> “He’s gotten a lot better, you have to admit. He told me that he’s managed to go nearly ten years without accidentally starting any wars.”
> 
> “That’s because he’s been alone on a desert planet for the last eleven.”
> 
> “You have a point.”
> 
> “Wait. Commandant from Arkanis? Wasn’t that guy allied with the First Order?”
> 
> “Oh. Yes, I think so.”
> 
> “Typical. Allying with a splinter of the Empire...”
> 
> “He’s acting as a double agent.”
> 
> “Are you kidding? He’s the least subtle person alive! How can he possibly be effective as a spy?”
> 
> “I have no idea, but he’s been sending encrypted messages to the Resistance for months, now, apparently.”
> 
> “Well… I guess as long as he’s staying out of any serious trouble.”
> 
> “I’m sure that if there’s anything serious going on… we’ll see the explosion from here.”
> 
> “You’re not nearly as funny as you think you are.”

Leia ran. Her pulse pounded in her ears, in her throat. She sent her mind as far ahead as she dared, feeling, searching out the best path, over a root there, under this tree limb.

 

“Run!” Master Yoda called out to her through the swamp. “A Jedi’s strength flows from the force!”

 

So Leia called on the Force, willing herself stronger, faster, lighter. More free. She could hear the sisters singing across the stars.

 

“Careful!”

 

Leia staggered, her toes slipping on dark moss. “Damn!” She breathed.

 

“Anger, aggression, fear… be cautious of drawing upon such things, young Skywalker.”

 

“I know,” Leia grimaced and staggered to a stop, rubbing at a sore spot on her hip where she’d slipped and fell earlier. “They lead to the Dark Side.”

 

“And yet…” Yoda hummed thoughtfully, looking around at the twisted trees and gloomy fog. “Tell me, young one, what Obi-Wan told you of your father.”

 

Leia slowly started to catch her breath, leaning her hands on her knees as her legs and arms threatened to stop listening to her commands. “Ben told me that Anakin Skywalker was my father. That they were friends, that they fought in the Clone Wars together, that Ben trained my father in the ways of the Jedi. That…" She hesitated. "That my father died just before I was born.”

 

Yoda’s ears twitched. “Doubts, have you?”

 

Finally conceding the fight against her own body, Leia sat herself on the mossy, muddy ground. She’d never thought there could be a place with _too much_ water. “Well, Ben also told me that I had no other family. But... I’ve always known about my brother, shared my dreams with him. Ben tried to tell me that Luke was just an imaginary friend that I would grow out of. I finally stopped trying to convince him. Ben... also has been known to be wrong, on occasion.”

 

Master Yoda took a deep breath and sighed. He suddenly seemed even smaller than normal, as if there were a great weight on his shoulders that he could never set down and he wearied of it. “Many mistakes, we made. Anakin, Obi-Wan… and myself. Or perhaps not so many, just a few that set us down the path of destruction.”

 

“My father is alive.” Leia was certain her long-ago vision was true, but part of her still hoped to find some confirmation.

 

Yoda perked up his ears a bit and slowly nodded. Leia felt hope clench dreadfully around her chest. “Survived, he has, many things that a mere Jedi could not. No mortal creature, is your father.” The corners of his eyes and mouth turned downwards. “Twenty-two years it has been, and still the grief is almost too much to bear. Yes, young Skywalker, your father is alive, though Anakin Skywalker he calls himself no longer. Names, after all, are easy enough to change.”

 

Leia let out a sigh and rubbed at her stinging eyes. “I don't understand. What happened that was so terrible? And why didn’t Obi-Wan tell me any of it himself?”

 

“Trying to protect you, he was. A powerful Jedi, Obi-Wan, but after that day… many things he did fear. Danced on the edge of the Dark Side, he has since then, only holding on by losing parts of himself.”

 

“What was he afraid of?”

 

“Losing you. Of making you too human, or not human enough. He learned the truth about what Anakin was and… he feared what that meant for you. For your brother, as well. Deeply, he cared about the two of you. More than a Jedi should, he thought. You are the child of Obi-Wan just as much as you are of Anakin and Padmé.”

 

Leaves rustled softly, but no wind moved. Leia shivered. She glanced over her shoulder, where it felt like someone was watching. Tree roots tangled and leaned together, creating a shadow, a kind of cave. It seemed to whisper sinister words to her.

 

“What’s in there?” she asked.

 

“That place… is strong with the Dark Side of the Force. A domain of evil, it is. In you must go.”

 

“Evil?” asked Leia.

 

Yoda gave her a strange look. “Different, you are, from other Jedi I have trained. Obi-Wan did his best, but normal flesh and bone, you are not. A mortal would be in great danger, entering that place. But if like your father and grandmother you are… then perhaps Dark an inaccurate word is. Deep, perhaps, would serve better. Keep your head above it, and you will not drown.”

 

“Keep my head above it,” Leia repeated softly. “What will I face in there?”

 

“Only what you take with you.”

 

She tugged the lightsaber from her belt. “Then I’d better not take this in.”

 

Yoda gave her a smile. “A wise decision.”

 

Watching her feet, Leia stepped into the dark. It was cold, and damp. The moisture in the air soaked her clothes, chilling her. She could feel things brushing against her arms in the near total darkness.

 

Ahead, she spotted a glimmer of pale blue light. Starlight. Closer and closer, she saw it was a wide window looking out over the expanse of space, the stars arranged unfamiliarly.

 

Two men stood at the window, their backs to her. Both were very tall, and clad all in black. The first had red hair, burnished and gleaming, neatly arranged, and wore some kind of military uniform she didn’t recognize. The other had shoulder-length dark hair, and was dressed in tattered black robes.

 

“Any news of the map?”

 

The dark-haired one tensed, and glanced back over his shoulder, right at Leia, as if he had heard her approach. His face was pale and beautiful, his mouth full and his brow straight, his features only marred by a scar that slashed from his hairline to his jaw, narrowly missing one eye. His expression wavered, as if he wanted to say something to Leia, but he turned back to his companion. “I have received a transmission from Solum Ren’s shuttle,” he said, his voice soft and compelling. “He has the map to the First Jedi Temple and expects to reach us within two standard hours.”

 

“Good.” The red-haired man looked at his companion, his cold blue eyes softening for a moment. “Are you doing alright?”

 

“Shouldn’t I be asking _you_ that, General? Do you need me to hold your hand during your speech?”

 

The General scoffed. “Only if you need to hold it so you don’t tip over and break a hip or something.”

 

“Your kind words never cease to warm my cold, dead heart.”

 

They both smiled at each other, a fondness in their gaze that Leia felt in her own chest.

 

The General walked away, leaving the dark-haired man alone at the window. He stood in silence for a moment, then turned to fully face Leia, his face careful and controlled.

 

“I can tell you’re there, Leia, listening, watching…” He smiled, something dark twisting behind his eyes. “You’ve always been so loud and bright. I could always feel you from lightyears away.”

 

He clenched and unclenched his fists, then shrugged his shoulders. There was something almost feral in his movements, something wild in the flicker of his eyes. “Tell me,” he whispered, grief and pain leaking through his words and drowning out what remained of his smile. “Do you still want to kill me?”

 

He lifted Darth Vader’s helmet over his head, fastening it into place.

 

“No!” Leia heard herself scream. “No, you’re not the same! Stop!”

 

But her words were not enough. Darth Vader was walking slowly towards her, his red saber gleaming in the dark. He was reaching out for her, his shadow stretched out.

 

“Leia,” he said, his voice deeper than the darkness. “Do you still want to kill me?”

 

Fear racing through her, Leia staggered back, on instinct reaching for her saber, her father’s saber, but a root caught at her heel, and she went tumbling to the ground. She landed hard, the breath knocked out of her, and she opened her eyes to dripping grey-green canopy above her.

 

“Alright, are you?”

 

Leia struggled upright and took a few deep breaths. “I think so. I’ve never had a vision that… real, before.”

 

Yoda nodded slowly. “Vader, you saw. Tied to your past, he is. And your future.”

 

A horrible dawning light broke into Leia’s mind. It couldn’t… but…

 

“Master Yoda,” she said, hearing her own voice shake just a little. “Is… is Darth Vader…”

 

She looked at the Jedi Master, hoping that she wouldn’t have to finish, that he would deny the path her thoughts had led her down. It couldn’t be true… Yoda simply watched her, sadness in his eyes.

 

Leia took a deep breath and lifted her chin. “Darth Vader is my father.”

 

Yoda bowed his head. That was all the confirmation Leia needed from him.

 

Above her, she could hear the sisters whispering to each other. A name. A vision.

  
Walking Sky Child. A golden being with his arms spread wide to embrace the sky.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "And this is your... Starkiller."
> 
> The way he said it made Hux want to punch him. It was amazing, really, that there was someone even more hellishly obnoxious than Kylo Ren in existence.
> 
> "Yes," Hux said politely. "Construction has just finished, and we are scheduled for a test-firing in five days."
> 
> Solum Ren turned to Hux. Towered, really, over Hux. Took up far too much space. "You will fire the weapon within two days. On the Hosnian System."
> 
> Hux stiffened. "Is that an order from the Supreme Leader?"
> 
> Solum Ren leaned his mask closer to Hux. The General wondered if disregard for personal space was part of the training regimen for all the Knights of Ren. "It is an order from me."
> 
> Hux was glad he was wearing his greatcoat. At least he had that much to help himself in this absurd chest-puffing contest Solum Ren seemed intent on. "I apologize, Solum Ren," he said slowly. "But until you give me good reason, I see no point in following _your command_."
> 
> The Knight stepped back, seeming to look over Hux from behind his infernal mask. "It seems, General, that your nickname is well-deserved."
> 
> Hux offered a very small, not-very-friendly smile. "I'm so glad not to disappoint."


	5. The Kindest Words I'll Ever Hear Are Still Inside My Head

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leia knew, when she left for Cloud City, that she was heading into a trap.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The floor was cold. So were the walls. Ben shivered. That was his name, right? Sometimes he felt like there was another name he had once used. One he had forgotten, and shouldn’t have. The loss of that name… took something important away. Ben wondered if he would have cried, if he had not cried himself out days (weeks? months?) ago.
> 
> Carefully, he felt along his arms, his legs. They were whole, unbroken. Had he healed them? Or had that been a dream. It was so dark. His hair had gotten long enough that if there had been any light he could have seen how much was still blond and how much had blackened.
> 
> On instinct, he tried to send his mind out into the Force, out to where the sisters could hear him. Again, he screamed in agony. Outside himself there was only pain. Inside himself there was only pain.
> 
> He felt so alone. He’d often felt alone, but this was all-consuming. His mind was a void. There was no distinction between waking and sleeping. Both were nightmares that couldn’t end.
> 
> Lifting shaking fingers, he tried to run a hand through his hair and felt only stubble on his scalp. Wha- When had that happened? Hadn’t he just been.
> 
> Ben held his breath, and wished he could choke himself to death. But… death terrified him. He remembered… he remembered sitting on Grandmother’s knee, listening as she told him stories of her youth, of fighting in long-forgotten wars with heroes that no one but her remembered. 
> 
> She told him of the sisters. She told him how they watched and listened and felt. They loved, too. They loved intensely. And the walking children were sent to be their hands and hearts and eyes and feet. To show the galaxy how much the sisters loved their home.
> 
> “But I’m human,” Ben said to her.
> 
> “Mostly,” she said with a shrug. “It doesn’t matter.”
> 
> But it did matter. It always got in the way. Ben couldn’t always hear the sisters, couldn’t always feel them in the stars above him and below him. He couldn’t always be Walking Fire Child, no matter how hard he tried, no matter how hard he tried to reach out, to listen and feel. It frightened him
> 
> “That’s alright,” Han Solo said with a grin. “You can just be like me, kid.”
> 
> But Ben couldn’t be human, either. He felt too much, saw too much, heard too much. Even at Mom’s Jedi school on Yavin, he felt overwhelmed by the minds of all the other students. Everything was too loud. He was too loud. Sometimes he would throw his practice stave to the ground and run into the forest, pulling at his hair, tears running down his face. Echoes rang in his head, back and forth, from side to side. He ran until he couldn’t. Until he collapsed, his lungs and legs spent and shaking from exhaustion.
> 
> When he did that, sometimes he dreamed. He dreamed of a tall man with a scar on his face, wearing all black, and with long black hair, watching him from the shadowy spaces between the trees. Sometimes he dreamed the man picked him up, carefully, gently cradling him like he was fragile and precious, and carried him back home. Ben would wake in his bed, his mother at his side with tears in her eyes.
> 
> One time, he dreamed he asked the man his name.
> 
> The tall man in black gave him a sad smile. “My name is Kylo,” he said.
> 
> But that was just a dream. There was no kind stranger to carry him home, now. Ben coughed, and he tasted blood and bile.
> 
>  
> 
> _You are nearly ready._
> 
>  
> 
> Ben… wait… was that his name? It sounded wrong, for some reason. He dug his jagged fingernails into his arms and wished with all his heart that the voice would leave him alone.
> 
>  _I can give you a name,_ said the voice. _That is what you want, yes? Poor child of two worlds, both mortal and immortal. You long for someone to tell you who you are._
> 
> “Yes,” he whispered. “Tell me…”
> 
>  
> 
> _I name you… Ren..._

Leia crept through the empty halls of Cloud City, following faint whispers in the Force. She felt for a moment that she could close her eyes and follow blindly, letting the Force guide her. Luke felt nearby, but his mind felt… strange. Muffled. Like it had been wrapped in cotton. She wondered if he’d been drugged. This was all definitely a trap, but… She couldn’t just leave them. Luke. Han. Chewbcca. C-3PO and R2-D2. They’d all carved out spaces in her heart and if  they were ever taken away it would hurt far too much.

 

She prowled around a corner. The entire building felt not-quite empty. Like… like there wasn’t anyone alive here, but…

 

Another whisper, spider-web strands against her mind. A gaping doorway into a black and red room beckoned her. There was something in the middle of the room, the only thing really visible. A person stood, head bowed, hands bound.

 

Han Solo.

 

Leia knew it was a trap, but her heart pulled her forward, tears stinging at her eyes. He looked terrible, his face haggard with pain. She glanced around the room and all but ran to him.

 

He heard her coming, his eyes lifting to see her, full of fear. “Leia, no! It’s a-”

 

She let the Force guide her, and it led her hand up, flicking on her lightsaber as she swung around to block a heavy blow. Blue clashed with red, light flickering with power as the behemoth stepped from the shadows behind her.

 

“Vader,” she growled, her teeth bared in an emotion she dared not label.

 

“The Force is with you,” Vader said, great slow steps inching her backwards, towards Han. “You should not have come here… Leia Skywalker.”

 

Leia kept her saber raised, watching carefully for Vader to drop his guard. “I know,” she said with a tight smile. “I guess I’m just too much like my father. I hear  _ he _ was reckless, too.”

 

Darth Vader halted, as if he had hit a wall. Leia darted forward, her saber swiping under his to jab at him. She thought she managed a glancing blow before he managed to repel her. He still breathed slow and heavy, unaltered, but she thought she heard a hitch in his breath, almost too quick to hear.

 

“That… lightsaber…” he said.

 

“Leia!” Han yelled. “Run! Get out of here!”

 

“I’m not leaving you!” she called over her shoulder.

 

Vader gestured, and from a corner of the room came the sound of heavy clanking machinery. Leia turned just in time to see the floor open and swallow Han, his scream cut off suddenly.

 

“Han!”

 

Again, Leia brought up her blade just in time to knock aside Vader’s attack from behind.

 

“You monster!” she spat at him.

 

“I know.” He stepped back, his weapon still raised. “My… my Master has ordered me to kill you.”

 

Leia felt strange, her head full of screams from a distance. Adrenaline pounded through her veins. She wanted to tear Vader to shreds with her nails and teeth.

 

“Why are you still here?” Vader said, as softly as his horrid mask would allow. “You… you shouldn’t be here… Leia…”

 

“I won’t let you kill my friends!” she snarled. “And you will not kill me!”

 

“You don’t understand.” Vader began walking towards her again. So slowly. “I… cannot disobey him. He…”

 

Vader stopped, just at the edge of the light in the center of the room. He raised his hand, the movement jerky and uncontrolled. She watched, horror flooding her heart as she saw him run his fingers just above the mask, his frame shaking. It was as if… he wanted to claw the abomination from his head, but an unseen power was holding him back.

  
“Please,” he said, his voice like thunder from over a distant mountain. “Please run, Leia. If I killed you… it would destroy what little is left of Anakin…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The floor was cold. So was the wall. Shivering, he pulled the tattered remains of his robe tighter around himself. Ben (was that his name? Wasn't there a new one he was supposed to use?) chewed at the inside of his cheek.
> 
> “You’re awake.”
> 
> The voice was low, calm, quiet. If he didn't know better, Ben would have thought the person it belonged to was the same way. “Yeah,” Ben muttered, rubbing at his face. “Where are we?”
> 
> “On a shuttle,” Kylo answered. “With General Hux on our way to D’Qar.”
> 
> “General Hux?” Ben almost managed to smile around the aching emptiness he felt. “So formal.”
> 
> Kylo made a dismissive noise. They both fell silent for a few moments.
> 
> “I can't go back,” Ben whispered.
> 
> Kylo didn't say anything.
> 
> “Where… why…” Ben swallowed and tried to start again. “When… all those years ago… Why didn't you do do anything? You could have-” Ben grasped at his head, wishing his hair was long enough to wrap his fingers in and pull. But his Master had ordered it cut again. “Why didn't you stop Mast- the Supreme Leader back then?” He couldn't stop the anguish from seeping into his mouth, his words. “I was just a child! I was so afraid… I screamed, but no one heard. I begged for the pain to stop, but it didn't. I prayed for someone to come save me, and now…” Ben choked on his own tears. “And now it’s happened far too late. I can't go back, now.”
> 
> “That is a lie the humans have told you. It's never too late to change your path.”
> 
> “What would you know!?” Ben snapped, fire in his heart. “You’ve never tried to change in your entire life!”
> 
> “Haven't I?” Kylo whispered.
> 
> That response stuck in Ben’s throat, tangling the words he'd intended into knots. And he remembered how little he really knew about Kylo, how much he'd been denied.
> 
> Kylo was quiet for so long that Ben thought he had left, had abandoned Ben. Again. “I was afraid,” he said softly, the admission pulled from him.
> 
> Ben scoffed and wiped at tears he pretended weren't there. “Of the Supreme Leader?”
> 
> “Of Leia.”
> 
> Ben made a sound he told himself was a laugh. Force, his emotions were all over the place. “Why were you afraid of my mother?”
> 
> “I still am.”
> 
> Ben wondered if Leia knew. “There's no reason for you to be afraid of her,” Ben said. “Aren't you more powerful than her?”
> 
> “You have such a simplistic view of power,” Kylo murmured. “To answer your question, yes. I am more powerful. If she and I were ever in a Force Arm-Wrestling contest, I would win, but…” His voice went quieter, full of old sorrow. “The first time she ever spoke to me, the first time she ever acknowledged my existence, she threatened to kill me. I guess it left a rather lasting impression. And she… she asked me to stay away from you. At least while you were growing up.”
> 
> “You didn't do a great job of that.”
> 
> Ben could almost hear the shrug. “I don't know if you’ve noticed, but I'm not perfect.”
> 
> “Shocking.”
> 
> “Ren.” Ben recognized the General's voice, even if it sounded softer when he spoke to Kylo. “We’re getting close.”
> 
> “Thank you,” Kylo said. “I’ll be there in a minute.”
> 
> “Why are you so nice to him?” Ben wondered.
> 
> Kylo actually laughed aloud at that. “I thought you knew!”


	6. Papa, Can You Hear Me?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shmi noticed Anakin watching her as she tidied their very small house. Maybe next time, they could be eccentric wealthy hermits, rather than slaves. No, this was better. No one ever looked at them.
> 
>  
> 
> _What are you thinking, walking sky child?_
> 
>  
> 
> He squirmed a little, pink dusting across his cheeks, embarrassed about something. "I was reading a story," he said aloud. "About a mother trying to save her child, who was dying."
> 
> Shmi stepped towards him, knelt next to him. She ran her fingers through his hair and he leaned into her, wrapping his tiny self around her as best he could. Opening her mind, she let him curl into her there, as well. They breathed together, simply feeling their love for each other flow back and forth between them.
> 
> He didn't need to explain. She didn't need to ask.

“I’m not afraid of you,” Leia tried to say, but she was out of breath, staggering from the weight of Darth Vader’s attacks. She had to keep retreating, dancing through the tangle of machinery in the room, blinking against the steam hissing through the air. Red and blue, their lightsabers brightened the steam, making it harder to see. Leia tried to expand her mind, tried to use the Force to feel her way around the room, but every time she did, darkness seeped in around the edges.

 

“I know…” Vader’s voice crept along her bones. “But you  _ do _ hate me. You should use your hate.” He slashed at her again, then twice more. She barely managed to deflect the blows. “Hatred is the only way you could hope to destroy me.”

 

Leia hesitated. Was that what she wanted? To destroy him? She wavered for a moment, and he struck again, sending her reeling, the jolt of the blows numbing her hands. A pipe caught at her heel, and she stumbled, nearly falling.

 

“Yes,” the dark mask hissed. “You do. You want to  _ destroy _ me. To rid the galaxy of me, to wipe reality clean of my existence…”

 

“Don’t think you can just-”

 

“After all, I killed Obi-Wan.”

 

Leia’s blood ran cold. The way he said it, so matter-of-fact…

 

“One of the most important people in your life, and I slaughtered him in front of you. Of course you want vengeance. You want to tear me apart, scatter my remains.”

 

With no other warning, Darth Vader switched off his saber, plunging Leia into stifling shadow. She could see nothing but the vague outlines of the nearest machines through the hazy fog-glow of her blue lightsaber.  _ Anakin’s _ lightsaber. She powered it off. Two could play this game.

 

“You still want to kill me…” That horrible voice echoed from all around her. 

 

She waited. And listened. Let the words he said wash over her. Patience. (Compassion.) Carefully, she stretched out the Force, tried to sense her surroundings without letting the inky shadows touch her heart.

 

“I am your enemy, Leia Skywalker. I _will_ kill you... unless you kill me _first_.”

 

_ Leia… _

 

Moving as quietly as she dared, Leia found a dark corner, almost a hallway between carbonite freezing equipment. She wondered if she should reach out to Luke, but there was nothing he would be able to do to help her. If she invited him into her mind right now, it would only hurt him. She steeled herself.

 

_ Please, Leia… _

 

It came from everywhere, that voice. And from inside her. It was the same voice that whispered to her just after Ben was killed. The voice of a child. Hesitant, quiet, unsure… like it had just woken up. Or… or was trying to wake up.

 

_ Please kill me… _

 

A flash of red light. Leia barely brought her lightsaber to bear in time to block it, but the attack still knocked her off-balance. She staggered back, out into open, cold air, flowing upwards all around her. Her hands scrabbled to hold on to what suddenly seemed like very frail metal beams stretched out over the reactor shaft. The abyss gaped below her, and Vader followed her out onto the platform, his weight making the structure tremble.

 

“There is no escape, now,” his voice thundered. “My Master has ordered your death, and so you must die.” Leia reached for her saber where it had fallen just out of reach, but with a flick of the Force Vader sent it over the edge, tumbling down into the pit, out of sight.

 

She stared after it, the hurt of loss squeezing at her heart. Her teeth clenched together, she turned that hurt into rage and steered it towards the monster in front of her. “That was Anakin Skywalker’s lightsaber!"she yelled, her voice raw. "My father!” She stood, wrapping herself up in power as tightly as she could. Light, dark… she didn’t really care where it came from, in that moment. “You!”

 

Darth Vader didn’t move, a statue, but Leia saw movement behind him, around the billowing fabric of his cape. Stormtroopers, aiming their blasters at her. She quaked, a dry leaf clinging to the tip of the branch in the wind.

 

“Fire!”

 

Leia tried to block all of the shots, but without her lightsaber, she couldn’t quite get all of them. Not all of the hits hurt right away, but none of them hurt for very long. She stared down at her arm, watched in awe as burned flesh healed itself before her eyes. Was this… the Force?

 

There was a great roar, and Leia looked up again the see Darth Vader had turned away, was advancing on his own men. One of them realized the danger, turned his weapon on their Commander. He was the first to be cut down. Leia had to look away quickly, her stomach churning in horror and revulsion. She tried to listen to that quiet voice, the sad, lonely thing that had tried to reach out to her earlier, but now there was only the black water of a typhoon at night, too dangerous to be near.

 

Calm parted the storm in her mind, just for a second or two. She looked down into the pit, into the darkness, and didn’t fear it.

  
Instead, she let go.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Papa, can you hear me?  
> Papa, can you see me?  
> Papa, can you help me not be frightened?
> 
>  
> 
> Can all the words in all the worlds,  
> everything I've ever learned,  
> Help me to face what lies ahead?
> 
>  
> 
> The sky is twice as lonely and the stars are half as bright...


	7. A War Without Weapons

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “Sir, we were unable to acquire the droid on Jakku.” Mitaka made himself stand strong. He wasn’t _exactly_ afraid of Lord Ren. The man was just _really_ intense, sometimes.
> 
>  
> 
> Lord Ren turned to face him, but said nothing, just stared at Mitaka.
> 
>  
> 
> “It escaped capture aboard a stolen Corellian YT model freighter-”
> 
>  
> 
> Ren’s head tilted. “The droid stole a freighter?”
> 
>  
> 
> “Um…” Was Ren trying to tell a joke? It was hard to tell. Hux had told Mitaka that sometimes Ren liked to think he was funny, but… “Not exactly, sir. It had help. We… have no confirmation, but we believe FN-2187 may have helped in the escape-”
> 
>  
> 
> Mitaka flinched at the horrible sound that emanated from Lord Ren’s mask. It took a minute for him to realize that the Knight was _laughing,_ his shoulders shaking, nearly doubling over.
> 
>  
> 
> Eventually, Ren seemed to get a hold of himself and straightened his shoulders. Mitaka almost let himself relax. Lord Ren seemed to be in one of his better moods, today. “Anything else?”
> 
>  
> 
> Mitaka nodded. “They were accompanied by a girl-”
> 
>  
> 
> Like the flip of a switch, Kylo Ren’s anger burst forth. A primal scream of rage rang in Mitaka’s head. Oh, and he was being choked, now. Alright, then. And dragged across the room. And Ren had turned on his lightsaber. Oh. Perhaps he shouldn’t have let his guard down, earlier. And perhaps now would be a bad time to mention what had happened to Kylo Ren's command shuttle.
> 
>  
> 
> “What _girl!?_ ” howled Ren, his saber inches from Mitaka’s face. “ _What girl,_ Lieutenant?”

The streets of Mos Eisley weren’t exactly  _ clean  _ or  _ safe, _ but Shmi walked with surety and purpose, not at all affected by the scum and wary eyes that watched them from alleys.

 

“I’m afraid I don’t know everyone’s names,” she was saying as she strode with the confidence of a queen through her domain. “My sources aren’t the best when it comes to things like that. We’ll have to do proper introductions once we reach the house. Dinner's almost ready for us.” She grinned over her shoulder. Leia had seen that exact expression on Luke’s face before. “It’s nice to see you again, Threepio.”

 

The droid perked up. “It is a  _ great _ pleasure and honor to see you again, my Lady.”

 

Luke stared at C-3PO. “You know her?” Leia was startled to hear Shmi laugh. It sounded so much like her own laugh.

 

“Forgive me, Master Luke,” said the droid, a bit stiffly. “But R2-D2 and I were given very specific instructions by your mother and Mistress Skywalker. Besides, nobody ever listens to me, anyway.”

 

Artoo beeped a laugh, and Leia felt a very small smile seep out of herself for the first time in weeks. “Threepio, you aren’t getting bitter in your old age, are you?”

 

From the outside, the house Shmi led them to was nothing much to look at, constructed mainly of brick and stucco like every other building in the port. Inside, however, was immaculately clean, with simple but sturdy furniture, a few rugs and even curtains on the windows, with enough space in the front room for three humanoids, a wookiee, and two droids with room to spare. For Tatooine, Leia thought, it was practically a mansion.

 

“I’ve had plenty of time in my life to be uncomfortable,” Shmi said, addressing Leia’s thoughts with a smile. “Luxury is unnecessary, but so is its opposite. Please, everyone, make yourselves at home.”

 

Chewbacca rumbled his reply and found himself a chair that he could fold himself into while Lando looked around curiously. After a few moments he smiled his bright, charming smile and swept a low bow to Shmi.

 

“My Lady,” he said. “Allow me to introduce myself. I’m Lando Calrissian, Baron Administrator of Cloud City on Lothal. Or at least I  _ was. _ ” He chuckled and shrugged a bit helplessly. “My circumstances have altered somewhat, recently.”

 

Shmi grinned. “What a charming, handsome fellow!” She looked at Luke. “I can see why you like him so much.” Luke’s face flushed red, and Leia bit back a laugh. “Well, then, Lando Calrissian, Chewbacca, I hate to be a bad hostess, but I’m afraid that in this instance, family matters come first.” Her gaze included the droids and Chewie. “Please get yourselves settled in. There are plenty of beds upstairs, and there’s an oil bath in back, if you’d like, Threepio.”

 

“Praise the Maker!” mumbled the protocol droid. “Ten minutes here and my joints are completely encrusted with sand!”

 

“Indeed,” said Shmi with a strange look. “The three of us, Leia, Luke, and I, are just going to go for a short walk to do some catching up. We should be back by the time dinner is ready. If anything else is needed, Rey can help you.”

 

“Except I can’t leave the kitchen!” yelled a strong, slightly squeaky voice from the other room. “If I stop stirring it will burn!”

 

“And she’s not allowed to use the Force to help her cook,” Shmi said wryly. “Not after the third fire. We’ll be back soon enough.”

 

Lando was looking a bit wild-eyed, but Chewie seemed fine and Artoo had already invaded the kitchen. So, when Shmi offered her hands to the twins, they held onto her and followed her out into the dry lavender dusk. Music spilled out of a nearby cantina, and stars peeked down at them as they made their way up the dusty street.

 

“Sorry for rushing you two out of there,” Shmi said softly. “But you were starting to look a bit overwhelmed.”

 

“The fresh air  _ is _ nice,” Luke said faintly. “Are… are you really our grandmother?”

 

The streets were busier, now, with the heat of the day finally starting to drift away from the ground. Shuffling and striding and skulking, the denizens of Mos Eisley meandered between lit doorways that spilled golden light onto the deep blue shadows. Shmi seemed to travel in her own world, though. A world that Luke and Leia could only catch the edges of, just yet. Leia could feel, though, through the skin of their hands linked together, Shmi gently opening her mind to let them in.

 

“Yes,” she said. “I am Anakin’s mother. I… didn’t know about the two of you until the sisters informed me. Walking Between Child.”

 

_ A horizon, a sky, a world, dancing upon infinite wings. Starlight and gleaming dimday rising and falling. A young one, child, both light and dark and endless beauty. Perfect symmetry and balance, sacred harmony eternal… _

 

“What?” They gasped, in one voice. She looked at him, and he looked at her, their minds drawn together, inevitably, like magnetic poles. Like the Force. In unison.

 

But Shmi squeezed their hands, first Luke’s and then Leia’s. “My apologies,” she said with a contrite glance at each of them. “I should have… ah…” She sighed. “I’m sorry. That’s the name that… that’s  _ your _ name.” She tugged them just a little closer, her mind yearning to embrace them. Almost helplessly, they did. It was so strange, the way she felt in their heads, opening up her mind and letting them in, in such a way that it felt as though they belonged together. Always. “Your name before you were separate children. When you were one child in two bodies. That name has power, and I’m sorry I used it without thinking of the consequences.”

 

“It’s alright,” they said. “It’s better that we know.”

 

They felt her smile, and she took a deep breath. “As lovely as you are this way, you can come back now, Luke, Leia…”

 

_ Walking Star Child. Walking Storm Child. _

 

Leia looked at Luke, and Luke looked at Leia. “That was… different,” he said quietly.

 

Shmi gazed at the two of them, one at a time. “There is much for you to learn. About yourselves. About your… family history. About the sisters.” Her dark eyes grew sharper as she stared through Luke. “Even if you don’t necessarily want to devote yourself to the formal study of the Force, Luke, you should at least know what you are. I think it’s good, actually, that you and Leia are different. In more ways than you know.”

 

“And what are we, exactly?” Leia pressed forward. The streets were becoming empty, and Shmi seemed uncaring of the few lingering shadows. No one was even glancing their way, and she couldn’t feel anyone listening.

 

“You are… walking children,” Shmi said, her eyes reflecting the dim light. “Different from the sisters who sleep, but the same.” She frowned. “The Jedi called us Viem. In the old language, it means ‘forceful ones’ or ‘those of great force’. They… the Jedi… long ago needed more power for their war against the Sith. The power of the Force they wished to use could only be harnessed so much by a mind limited by consciousness and mortality. So… they engineered the Viem to create more. More power for their war.”

 

Luke was watching Shmi closely, his mind working side-by-side, but separately, from Leia’s. She enjoyed watching him think. While she thought of what their grandmother’s words meant for the two of them, he was seeing a much bigger picture. “The Viem were made to be weapons?” he asked.

 

Shmi pursed her lips. “More like… infinite power sources. A single Viem can be used to terraform an entire planet in less than a day. Or destroy one. They were living, because only life can create the Force, but… as far as the Jedi knew we were mindless, no different than single-cell organisms in how much we could think or feel. They… did not know, really, what they had made. A single Viem, yes, on her own is not really what you could call a living thing in anything other than the most basic of ways. The Jedi did not make only one, however. They made  _ hundreds _ .”

 

Leia reached out her hand, and in the evening shadows Luke took her hand in his. The three of them stood, their hands and hearts linked together. Astonished, Leia realized she could feel all their hearts beating simultaneously.

 

“I’m… still not entirely certain what caused it, but… one day, one of the Viem woke up. The Jedi were baffled by what had just happened. The Viem, after all, were little more than organic power-generators. But yet there one was, awake and responding to stimulus as if it really were sentient. In their haste to figure out what had happened, the Jedi…” Shmi hesitated and blinked a few times, showing emotion for the first time since she started her story. “They killed her. They wrote off the loss as an aberration, but then another woke up, and then another, both with the same result, if a bit delayed.” Shmi looked up, met Luke’s eyes and then Leia’s. “I was the fourth.”

 

“Walking Forth Child,” Leia said softly.

 

“I can teach you many things,” said Shmi, her voice strong but gentle as she looked into Leia’s eyes. “The mysteries of the Force are there for you to uncover... and if you wish, I can guide you on your path. There is more to learn than you can imagine.” A small smile crossed her face. “Some practical things would be in good order, as well, I think. How to hide in plain sight. How to make yourself faster, stronger than any mortal. How to control your body so finely that you can determine how fast you heal, saving your life-force for when it is necessary.”

 

Luke frowned. “Is that even possible?”

 

Shmi shrugged and managed to look a bit embarrassed. “I didn’t know it was. But it must be how Anakin has survived. Nothing else makes sense. To be honest, I probably can’t do it. There’s too little of my life left to try.”

 

Leia thought of how much pain that must take, to do something like that. Enough to make someone wish for death instead? To lash out like a wounded animal, inflicting pain and horror on others? She thought of the voice of a lost child in her head, pleading for mercy, for the pain to end.

 

A child made of sky… turned to emptiness, ash, and sorrow and rage.

 

“I’ll do it,” said Leia, clenching her teeth and swallowing against the lump in her throat. “Teach me everything. I’ll… I’ll do whatever it takes to kill Darth Vader.”

  
Shmi tipped her head slightly, nothing more than mild curiosity on her face. “Who’s Darth Vader?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> BB-8 looked up at the girl, hesitant.
> 
>  
> 
> “Don’t give up,” she said, encouragingly. “He might still show up, whoever it is you’re waiting for, _classified._ ” She adjusted the strap of her bag. “I know all about waiting.”
> 
>  
> 
> Curious, BB-8 whistled a question. The girl paused, then glanced up at the sky. “For my family.” She tried to smile. “They’ll be back. One day…”


	8. The Dream Eater

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Have you ever heard the story of Darth Plageuis the Wise?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Why are you looking at me like that?"
> 
> "Do you know what happens to someone who kills their own soulmate?"
> 
> "...No."
> 
> "Neither do I. I've heard that it's impossible to do. Every text I've ever read that gets near the subject says that even speaking of such a thing is taboo. I've heard stories-"
> 
> "Do I dare ask why you're thinking such morbid things? You're not thinking of killing me, are you?"
> 
> "No. No, nothing like that. Not me. And not you. Sorry. I... didn't mean to upset you."

“We’re lucky that Vader had the will to resist you somewhat, and that the girl had the strength to survive,” snarled Darth Plagueis. “You could have ruined everything in your foolishness.”

 

Palpatine whimpered slightly from where he had collapsed to the floor a while ago. Plagueis turned, his tall frame silhouetted against the Coruscanti skyline, to consider his hasty, small-minded apprentice.

 

“But,” Plagueis said slowly. “Perhaps… the situation can yet work for us. Perhaps, Sidious, it is time for you to name an heir.”

 

Plagueis could feel Palpatine’s confusion, but to his credit he did not voice it aloud. “Yes, my apprentice. You and I both know that age has no claim over your life. However, most of the galaxy has no idea… the power of the Dark side. The petty so-called leaders of systems will try to curry your favor. While such squabbling would be amusing in any other time, now we must put aside entertainment for the sake of practicality. You will send a broadcast to every system, to every planet, both Imperial and otherwise. Every sentient must know that you have decided already… who will next be Emperor.”

 

Palpatine had made it up to his knees, and had stopped there, prostrating himself before Darth Plagueis. “Yes, Master. It shall be as you command.”

  
“Good. As for  _ who _ you will name…” A rare, wicked smile twisted his face. “I think that Prince Luke Organa of Alderaan would make an excellent Emperor, don’t you?”

 

 

* * *

 

 

A dark, robed figure approached the glowing blue column. They knelt, worshipful, and muttered solemn words that Shmi couldn’t quite make out. She turned away, looked out over the arid, molten landscape outside this strange fortress. The clouds hung heavy, black and bloated, over burning rivers. A few rocky crags clawed desperately upward, as if trying to escape their torment.

_ I’ve been waiting centuries for you. _

An archway led deeper into the fortress, to a gloomy flight of stairs. Another wall hid a mechanical hidden entrance, and more stairs, spiraling downwards into the dark. Yet another hidden passageway, this one under the floor. Sealed away even to the Force. Nothing living was beneath.

Nothing living in the normal sense, that is.

_ You can hear me, yes? _

Shmi stared downward. She couldn’t close her eyes.

_ This is a dream. _

_ Yes. It is. _

Deep. Deep in the dark, there was something even darker.

_ Child-of-many-names. Our meeting is inevitable. Here. In this place. _

Shmi sat on the rooftop, a blanket around her shoulders as she settled herself to clear her mind and greet the dawn. Her skin felt strange and sticky, as if that dream were still clinging to her. Whatever had been speaking to her through the dream was gone, but the sensation of it lingered like illness in the air.

She closed her eyes. The Force moved around her, a gentle current that she could let herself drift on, washing away what she needed to let go of and clarifying what she needed to keep. The sisters hummed quietly, their ambient song never far away.

The sky was turning pink when she opened her eyes, and she smiled when she saw her daughter and grandchildren, wrapped in their own blankets to ward off the pre-dawn chill of the desert. Leia and Rey were meditating, but it looked as if Luke had dozed off again.

Shmi smiled. “Late night, Luke?”

Luke started awake, and the girls grinned, not as deep in their meditations as they seemed. “Um… yeah.” Luke rubbed at his eyes. “I was trying to wait up for Lando, but he’s not even back yet. I didn’t think finding Han would be this hard.”

“Lando’s alright,” Leia said firmly. “I can sense that he isn’t in danger.”

“I’m not worried,” Luke protested, despite the flush in his cheeks.

“I am, a little,” Rey admitted, though she didn’t seem very worried. More like she just wanted to be a part of the conversation.

“We’re  _ all _ a little worried,” Shmi said firmly, folding her hands in her lap. “As long as we do not let our emotions rule over us, then a little worry is fine. Emotion, even negative, is not our enemy.”

“Even fear?”

Shmi looked at Leia curiously. “Even fear. As long as you can find the strength to control it.”

“That isn’t what the Jedi taught.”

“Leia,” Shmi said with a sad sort of smile. “The Jedi, powerful as they were, had a philosophy and code so ancient and rigid that it eventually destroyed them. Their code was a way, _ one _ way of many, that helped people understand and use their connection to the Force. It wasn’t even the only way of adhering to the  _ Light _ side of the Force, simply the most well-known. You have a lot of study ahead of you, dear one.”

_ Just as the Sith are not the darkest, they were simply once the most numerous. _

Shmi shivered. The thought felt like the dream from the night before.

“Luke. Leia. Rey. Have any of you…” Shmi trailed off, thinking over how she should phrase her question. “Even among beings powerful in the ways of the Force, it is rare to find many who have the gift of visions and dreams. For the two of you, such dreams have always been common, right?”

“Yes, grandmother,” Leia answered, her mind still wrapped up in calm and peace.

“Has anything changed, recently? In your dreams?”

Leia shook her head. “No. Our dreams have been pretty quiet for the last three years, since Luke and I are together more.”

Luke nodded a little, but didn’t answer. He kept his gaze fixed on the brightening horizon, as if he were still trying to meditate.

“Anakin had many dreams,” Shmi said. “Mostly of the past. Some of the future. Sometimes… he dreamed of futures that couldn’t happen.”

All three children frowned at her. “What do you mean?” asked Rey.

Shmi pressed her palms down harder against her knees. “He told me that he had dreams of my death at the hands of Tusken Raiders, and later of Padmé’s murder at the hands of General Kenobi. Horrible visions that felt like they came from the Force, like they were certain to come to pass, but so near impossible that, well, he had to dismiss them. He began to distrust his dreams unless they were so overpowering that he couldn’t ignore them.”

Leia took a deep breath. “Why are you telling us this? Are his dreams… what led him down that path?”

Shmi shrugged. “I don’t know,” she said honestly. “I just… have a feeling. And I want my family to be safe. I sense…” She took a breath. “I sense that there may be an entity able to manipulate our dreams. If any of you dream anything unusual, would you consider sharing it? None of us have to bear our burdens alone.”

“Yes, mother,” Rey said solemnly. Leia nodded. Luke did as well, but he didn’t look at Shmi.

From the street below them came a shrill whistle. Luke leapt to his feet. “That’s Lando!” he exclaimed.

In all the commotion of the entire strange household rousing from their sleep, Shmi didn’t get a chance to speak with Luke alone just yet. She held her tongue and watched with a joyous smile as Calrissian gathered family and friends around him in the front room.

“You look exhausted,” Threepio said unhelpfully.

Lando gave the droid a tired smile. “Even you wouldn’t be very shiny after a night like i just had. But it was absolutely worth it.” He turned to the twins, his arms spread wide. “I did it! I found where Jabba is keeping Han!”

Rey cheered. Luke whooped like a kid at a pod-race. Chewbacca roared his delight. And Leia swept Lando into a huge embrace, kissing him full on the mouth.

When the man grimaced as she pulled away, Luke cackled. “Don’t worry, Lando,” he said. “Kissing Leia is just the same as kissing me!”

Shmi laughed along with everyone else.

 

 

 

* * *

 

“No,” he begged. “ _ Please _ no. Not this dream. Not this dream again. Anything but this…” Which was strange. He didn’t remember ever having this dream, before.

“Why are you crying, Sky?”

Vader heard the sound of rain falling around him, but none deigned to touch him.

“What do you want?” Vader asked the blackbird. When it didn’t answer, he looked up at it, where it perched on the rocks near him, sorrow and rage and grief and confusion all twisting through him. “WHAT DO YOU WANT!?” he roared at it, hoping to scare it into leaving, but it only hopped a little distance away, fluffing its feathers as if offended at his display of emotion.

“ _ What _ do you  _ want from me _ !?” Vader collapsed, his knees in the sand. “ _Why_ do you keep coming back? I… I have nothing you could possibly want! I have  _ nothing _ !” He clenched his armored fists. “Do you hear me!? There’s nothing-” His voice broke, brittle shards stabbing and slicing into him around the edges. “There’s nothing left for me to give you… nothing…” His own words tasted like dust. It was true. There was nothing left. “Nothing left… of me…”

The blackbird fluttered closer, just inches away, and looked up at him with bright eyes. “What do you want most, Sky?”

Vader stared down at it, this brave, curious thing. He didn’t know how to answer it, how to tell it about the endless agony in body and mind, the darkness that boiled just beneath his skin, or what remained of it. This scarred husk, this ashen, repulsive carcass. But, as in many dreams, the words came anyway.

“To be  _ free _ ,” he whispered, as if the word were the most sacred utterance to ever pass his lips. “To run on my own legs until I can’t anymore. To feel the sun and rain on my own skin. To taste something other than ash and decay. To… to hold my children in my own arms. To look upon their faces with my own eyes…”

His head lowered, and his breath hissed, slow, in and out, through the mask. “But I suppose such a wish is terribly selfish of me…”

“My Lord Vader?”

The desert sands were gone. The endless sky was gone. There was only durasteel walls, uniformed men at their stations, and the black expanse of space.

“What is it?” he asked the Admiral standing in front of him.

“I wanted to inform you that we are only a few minutes from Endor, my Lord.”

“Good,” said Darth Vader. “Let the Emperor know of our arrival. Soon, this petty war will be all but over.”

  
Vader did everything he could to follow everyone else’s lead and ignore the blackbird still perched on the railing next to him.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Padmé folded tighter into herself, slow to wake. Her hand reached out to the space next to her. Empty. Warm. Growing colder. She blinked several times and rubbed at her eyes. The chrono next to the bed showed fifteen minutes until 0400.
> 
> A very quiet sniffling, quickly silenced. Suddenly wide awake, Padmé pulled herself across the bed and peered over the edge.
> 
> “Ani?” she whispered.
> 
> He threw a hand over his mouth to muffle a sob, but even in the dim light she could see him shaking, curled up on his side.
> 
> “‘m fine,” he croaked. “I… I…”
> 
> Her husband fell silent as she clambered down to lay next to him on the floor, her arms wrapped around him, her hands soothing up and down his back. Now that she was awake, he let himself be a little louder, not so concerned about waking her. It hurt, feeling her strong Knight shudder beneath the blows of an enemy neither of them could fight.
> 
> “Another dream?” she asked softly, already knowing the answer.
> 
> “I couldn’t save you,” he whispered, tears falling on her skin. “I can’t- can’t- It can’t be real…”
> 
> “I’m here.” She pulled him even closer. “Ani, I’m here.”
> 
> “I know…” he whimpered.
> 
> But even wrapped around each other, he still felt too far away.


	9. Like A Storm In The Desert

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If you haven't played Knights of the Old Republic/don't know how cool Darth Revan is... ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ you're still good to read this, but the swoop bike reference will go over your head :D
> 
>  
> 
> 'Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it."
> 
> -Terry Pratchett

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kylo glanced back at Maz, who was staring at him, intrigue written on her pinched face. “What?” he asked.
> 
> “I’ve just never seen anyone use the Force the way that you do.”
> 
> Kylo snorted and stretched his shoulders. “You’ve seen my mother use it plenty of times.”
> 
> “Yes. And I stand by what I said. She uses it with hardly a thought, but you… you use it like… like it is nothing more than an extension of yourself.”
> 
> Kylo shrugged, not really comfortable with the subject matter. Or the smuggler’s clothes he’d acquired for this ...venture. They smelled strange. Less than a week before Starkiller base was scheduled for its test-firing, and Hux had not been happy with Kylo’s sudden emergency departure when they were supposed to be heading to some place called Jakku.
> 
> It was worth it, though, Kylo thought as he examined his handiwork in the basement of Maz’s fortress. The walls blended seamlessly together, showing no sign of anything hidden behind them. Even through the Force… the overwhelming feeling of the planet itself went a long way. It would take an extremely powerful being to notice anything, and they’d have to get past Maz, first.
> 
> “Yeah,” he said quietly. “She’ll be safe here. She may even help protect this place, in her own way.” He shrugged and turned to Maz. “Thank you.” He tried to give her as graceful a bow as he could manage, but she didn’t look very impressed.
> 
> “The lightsaber?” she questioned, gesturing towards the weathered chest in the corner. “Will you be taking it with you?”
> 
> Kylo’s hands itched to touch it, thought of holding it, of wielding it. He sighed. “Not yet,” he said begrudgingly. “It will find its way to me when the time is right.”
> 
> “I’m still mad at you,” she said sternly. It was amazing how much disdain could be fit into such a small body. “The things you have put your dear mother through-”
> 
> “Maz,” Kylo sighed, trying to step around her to make his escape. “I really don’t have time-”
> 
> “Han Solo is here.”
> 
> Kylo gagged a little. “I know. That’s why I came in the back way.”
> 
> He finally managed to get past Maz and headed for the stairs. “You can’t keep hiding forever,” she called, hustling to keep up with him. “Eventually you _have_ to talk to your family.”
> 
> Kylo tried not to vomit at the thought. “That… _smuggler scum_ … Solo is _not_ my _family_.”
> 
> Maz gave him a too-knowing look. “You know what I meant, Kylo.”
> 
> The horrible thing was… she was right.

Pieces of furniture rocked back and forth a bit as Leia stormed about the small house, hands braiding her hair tightly around her head to fit under a helmet as she shoved things into her pockets with the Force.

 

“I cannot  _ believe, _ ” she seethed. “That  _ everyone _ went and got their asses captured by Jabba. This is ridiculous. Luke is  _ so _ lucky that Lando was already there. What the hell kind of plan was that? And he got poor Threepio, Artoo, and Chewie caught up in his mess!”

 

“It is a rather large mess,” Shmi agreed, smiling as she wrapped some emergency rations up in a scrap of sunshield fabric. “Anything else you need?”

 

Leia scowled. “No. I’ll get everyone out of there. I’ll make it work.”

 

It didn’t sound like she was too keen on trying not to kill anything on her way, either. Shmi nodded as she handed Leia the last of the supplies to load onto her speeder. “I’m certain you will. May the Force be with you.”

 

Leia paused, half-way out the door, her helmet in her hands. She looked back at Shmi, her dark grey eyes asking a question. Shmi walked over to her, embracing her, answering that question.

 

“May the Force be with you, as well… Grandmother. We should be back before dark.”

 

The storm walked away, more gently than it had arrived, leaving Shmi standing for a space of quiet, the minutes dripping down her fingers. The small house was more still than it had been in months.

 

“Mom?”

 

Shmi turned to gaze at Rey, adoration spilling out of her. Rey truly was the best of them all, she thought. Of all the walking children, Rey, even as young as she was, had by far the strongest mind, the most fine-tuned control of the Force. Steady in a way that Shmi could never manage, with so much blood between her teeth. The Force moved in mysterious ways, and had seen that Rey would be needed where Shmi never would have dared ask for help.

 

“Rey,” Shmi said softly. “It’s time for us to pack.”

 

She perked up immediately, curiosity lighting her face and shifting her whole body with excitement. “We’re leaving Tatooine?”

 

With a laugh, Shmi spun her around and urged her back to her room. Of course she would be eager, having never seen anything other than desert through her own eyes. Never tasted a humid wind or let river-water run over her feet.

 

So when they pulled out of hyperspace, and Shmi lowered the ship carefully down through the atmosphere while Rey pressed her nose to the viewport, Shmi drank in her joy over such a new place.

 

“It’s so green!” Rey exclaimed, bouncing up and down on her seat, her eyes wide with wonder. “I didn’t know there was this much green in the whole galaxy!”

 

Shmi laughed at her exaggeration. It certainly felt true. And sometimes exaggeration was important, when explaining feelings. Words often weren’t big enough, even when blown out of proportion.

 

Maz’s lake-side castle looked much as it had last time, though with several more flags added to her collection. Shmi had rather hoped to sneak in without much fanfare, but, well, this was Maz. Maz Kanata was difficult to sneak up on. And if she let you, it was only to shine the spotlight on you in a more embarrassing light.

 

If it had just been Maz, Shmi probably could have walked right into the building with Rey, but Maz was not the only person standing out front to greet the two of them.

 

“Owen!” Rey cried happily as she scampered down the ship’s ramp. “Beru!”

 

“Hello, little sister!” Owen cried as he knelt to receive her very enthusiastic hug. He nearly tipped over, but Beru was right there, eager to hold them both up with her own embrace. They all laughed, and Shmi found herself giggling along with them. The inevitable aging of humans had never made her sad, before, but she found herself looking at the grey in Owen’s hair wistfully. It felt wrong, that her dear boy should look older than her.

 

No matter. She was still his mother.

 

“Come on!” Rey demanded, taking Owen’s hand and tugging him away. “Will you show me around, Owen? What’s that plant called? How deep is that lake?” Rey continued to fire questions as him as they wandered off, a broad smile on Owen’s face.

 

“I’m glad to see the two of you looking so well, Beru,” Shmi said.

 

“Fleeing Tatooine with the Empire hot on our heels wasn’t what I would call ‘fun’,” Beru said with a roll of her eyes. “But it’s been good, here on Takodana. Maz has been nothing but kind to us, and Owen’s been talking about starting up a business out of Dantooine.” 

 

“Huh. I was hoping to meet the twins,” Maz said, her hands on her hips. “Owen and Beru have told me a lot of stories about Leia. She sounds just like her grandmother.”

 

Shmi winced just a little bit. “You haven’t been telling them stories about me in exchange, have you?”

 

“Of course I have!”

 

Beru laughed, her face lighting up as she snuck her arms around Shmi. Shmi had forgotten how much her daughter-in-law enjoyed hugs. “My favorite is the one about the swoop race on Taris.”

 

Shmi tried not to cringe to visibly. “I was barely involved, Maz. Why did you tell them that one?”

 

“If designing and installing an illegal and highly dangerous accelerator for one of the swoop bikes and punching a man for calling you a cheater is ‘hardly involved’...”

 

“...I wasn’t actually  _ in _ the race,” Shmi mumbled. “It was Revan who kept the bike from exploding while he flew it.”

 

Maz turned keen eyes towards her, magnified several times, of course. “The Force has begun to move. I have felt it, even here.”

 

“Yes,” Shmi said quietly, the smile fading from her face. “Events are in motion, now. Leia and Luke will determine their path and the path of the Empire. I… have sensed that I am needed elsewhere… If I am to keep my family safe.”

 

_ A world of burning, of pain, of burial. Deep, deep… below the darkness, far deeper than any light could ever shine… _

 

“So you have brought me yet another of your children to keep safe,” Maz grumbled, not unkindly.

 

“It seemed like the best option for what needs to be done,” Shmi said, her attention somewhat divided. “Rey, sweetheart, please don’t eat those leaves.”

 

Rey frowned at her from across the clearing while Owen looked a bit guilty. “I wasn’t! I was just gonna lick them!”

 

“She looks like you,” Maz said kindly, adjusting her goggles as she peered at Rey. “But I suppose that surprises no one. Will you stay for one meal, at least?”

 

Beru’s hand snuck down to hold Shmi’s as the two of them watched Owen carrying Rey on his shoulders through the trees, their bright chatter warm as the sunlight.

 

“I can stay that long.”

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

Luke stared at Mon Mothma, his words freezing on their way out of his mouth. “I’m… sorry… what?”

 

“I cannot allow you to participate in the mission at hand. It’s best if you not even attend the planning meetings. I'm sure you understand-”

 

“No,” he protested. “Actually, I don’t understand at all! Mon Mothma, I’ve served this Rebellion with everything I have for three years and now I can’t even help plan an attack? Can’t even know the target? What is _going on?_ ”

 

She turned to face him more fully, her always composed demeanor somehow still not entirely masking her surprise. “You… haven’t heard? Every planet, even in the Outer Rim, received the broadcast…”

 

‘What broadcast?” Luke asked, his neck tight with anxious energy, making his voice do strange things. Wedge shot him a sorrowful glance from behind Mon Mothma.

 

She stared down at the table, a frown between her eyes. “Play back the holo,” she said firmly.

 

An image suddenly flickered in front of Luke, an image that chilled his bones. The dessicated features of Emperor Palpatine leered at him from beneath their usual hood.

 

_ “Greetings, my citizens,”  _ the Emperor intoned, his voice scratching at Luke’s nerves.  _ “There is an immutable truth that all living beings must face, one commonality shared by even one such as I with the simplest life-forms imaginable. Death comes for all, and even I must acknowledge that one day I must leave you, my people. _

 

_ “In preparation for that sad event, I have decided that the time has come for me to name an heir…” _

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

The breeze shifted the leaves, sending shadows dancing along the path between Shmi and her ship,  _ Seltaya- _ class civilian courier  _ Izel Wing _ . Something shifted in the dappled light, opposite the movement of the flickered shadows. Shmi froze for a moment before she realized who it was. She took a deep breath and walked firmly, certain in what she needed to do, but he managed to get the first word in.

 

“Alright,” said Owen. “I’m ready.”

 

Shmi leveled her best glare at him, but he refused to budge even a little bit. “Owen-”

 

“Rey and Beru will keep an eye on each other. And worst case scenario Beru has access to all those credits we saved up from the farm. Plus some ties with trustworthy people to call on.”

 

“ _ Owen- _ ”

 

“Shmi, you are not taking off without me,” he insisted, making his way towards the ship, a bag slung over one shoulder. “It’s best if you have an extra set of eyes and hands.”

 

“You don’t even know where I’m going!” she protested.

 

“Do  _ you _ ?”

 

“Mustafar,” she answered before knowing the answer. “I don’t know what’s there, or what I’m walking into-”

 

“All I’m hearing is that you need me to fly this thing and shoot a blaster for you.”

 

“It’s  _ dangerous _ !”

 

“You think I don’t realize that?”

 

“Owen…” Her voice cracked. She cleared her throat. “Owen, I-”

 

“You promised.”

 

Her protests dies in her head, but he kept going. “Remember? You promised you would never leave me behind. That I was yours, too.”

 

Her eyes stung terribly, and her vision got watery. “That’s why… I can’t risk you…”

 

“You need my help.” He took a step closer to her. “You do. I know you’re powerful and amazing and I… I get that. I can’t let you go by yourself. Not again.”

 

She leaned her forehead against him and wrapped her arms around him. His breathing gradually slowed down as they both calmed. Shmi did her best to wipe tears away before looking back up at him.

 

“I will  _ never _ leave you behind,” she whispered, reaffirming her long-ago promise. “Owen, if this is what you want…”

 

“It is.”

 

_ Rivers of fire. Rivers of ash. Rivers of torment. Why here? To the pain… to the suffering… to the utter and complete destruction. _

  
“Alright then,” she said, drawing strength into both of them. “Let’s go.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The _Sacred One_ will be free of all chains.
> 
> The _Sacred One_ will lead us and destroy us.
> 
> The _Sacred One_ will raise us from death and reforge us stronger than before.
> 
> \- prophecy fragment from the Book of Sith, as translated by Master of Knights Lythago Ren
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> _(As you can see, my apprentice, this prophecy was poorly translated by someone who sought to impose their own meaning upon the text. "Sacred One" is a particularly misleading term, as the original term literally means 'Supreme Leader' with later connotations adding the meaning "Perfect Being" or "King/Emperor" and even "God". The future tense used in the original was that of a certain and unavoidable future, quite a bit stronger than in Galactic Basic. Even the phrase "all chains" uses specific imagery absent in the original text, which is more directly translated as 'limits'. Similar unnecessary imagery is used in the word "reforge". great care should be taken in translating ancient texts, my apprentice, or we will be no better than the doomed Jedi with their mangled "Chosen One" prophecy.)_


	10. You Want A Revelation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _It speaks to us still._
> 
>  
> 
> _Darkness Incarnate._
> 
>  
> 
> _We know now we can never escape it._
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> (this chapter brought to you by Knights of the Old Republic and also kind of Fable 3 but only some dialogue)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “Senator,” Gallo said sharply. “We’ve arrived at Hosnian Prime. It’s time.”
> 
> Luke stared at the man for a second. The guard was standing straighter than usual, his eyes not meeting Luke’s. “What’s wrong, Captain Gallo?”
> 
> The Captain looked at the floor, organizing his thoughts carefully. “You sent Han Solo to his death.”
> 
>  _No,_ thought Luke. _I sent him to the one person most capable of keeping him from death._ “He’s determined to die,” Luke stated, unwilling to show how much he wished his words weren’t true. “At the hands of your Master.”
> 
> Captain Gallo, to his credit, only looked at Luke with mild surprise.
> 
> “Come now, Captain,” Luke continued. “I’m not as blind as you take me for. I’ve known of your allegiance to the First Order for some time, now.”
> 
> Captain Gallo stood there for a moment longer before he shrugged and swept a bow like he was a performer on a stage. “I have been seen through. Senator, may I introduce myself properly? My name is Gallus Ren of the Knights of Ren.”
> 
> “Hello, Gallus Ren,” Luke said. They both stood there, the silence hanging in the air like a blovan waiting to pop. Luke took a swing at it. “So… is this when you try to kill me?”
> 
> Gallus looked offended. “No, Senator! Of course not! My role has been as a bodyguard for you, just as I was hired for. I’ve… protected you. So that when the time is right, my Master may kill you himself.”
> 
> “Snoke wants to kill me himself?”
> 
> Gallus Ren’s eyes burned. “Wrong again, my Lord Senator. Snoke is no Master of the Knights of Ren. He is, at most, a temporary leader, a voice we choose to follow. For now.”
> 
> “And who is your true Master?”
> 
> Darkness seeped out from between Gallus Ren’s teeth when he smiled and put his hand on his blaster. “That is a dangerous question. The Master of the Knights of Ren is currently Solum Ren, whom you have known by another name. _Eyah seh maat, shu kor huaan. Zhol kash dinora. Ja’ak. Nwûloksh Revankist’ari._ ”
> 
> The hissing words were punctuated by Gallus Ren drawing his blaster. Paralyzed, Luke knew he didn’t need to draw his own, knew he wasn’t powerful enough to stop the Knight in front of him from taking aim at his own head and pulling the trigger. Luke startled, shaken, when the body fell to the floor, a smile still on the dead man’s face. That had not been the result he’d anticipated. Clearly there was more going on than he’d dreamed.
> 
> Luke had never learned the ancient language of the Sith, and he didn’t care to think about how he knew exactly what the man had said before ending his own life.
> 
> With the night comes rest. It is done. I am free. Peace will be through the Lord Revan Reborn.

“I have to kill him,” Leia said. “It’s the only way.”

 

“What about forgiveness?” Luke demanded. “What about compassion?”

 

“This isn’t-” Leia bit her lip so hard she tasted copper. “This isn’t about forgiveness, Luke. It’s about mercy. Don’t try to stop me.”

 

“Too late,” he said. “I can’t let you do this. I can’t let you go.”

 

Her hands hurt, clenched at her sides as they were. “Luke,” she all but hissed, her eyes stinging. “You don’t understand. I  _ have _ to do this.”

 

“No. You don’t.”

 

“The galaxy needs-”

 

“To hell with the galaxy!” Luke cried. “To hell with what Obi-Wan says you have to do, and what Shmi says you have to do. You, Leia.  _ You _ decide what you have to do, what needs to be done.”

 

They both fell silent, the forest mists crawling up the trunks of the trees around them, cloaking them in their own world. Leia looked in Luke’s eyes, wondering when he’d gotten so stubborn. When had she lost track of her own brother?

 

“I shouldn’t have snuck you into the shuttle,” Leia muttered. “I can’t believe I let you talk me into bringing you along. Luke…”

 

“I’ve had dreams.”

 

The weight in his words dropped them through the air into Leia’s hands. She clenched them tighter.

 

“I’ve dreamt of what happens when you face Darth Vader,” Luke continued. “Leia… it isn’t good. I’ve dreamed it over and over.”

 

“They’re just dreams…”

 

“Are you sure?” he asked. There was light in his question, hope that she could answer with certainty that he was wrong, that they were just dreams, that everything was going to be alright.

 

But she wasn’t sure, and Luke saw that as soon as he asked.

 

“I need you to promise something,” Luke said. “No matter what happens, you have to stay out of my mind. Even if you’re just listening, the Emperor will sense it, and he’ll use it to get you into his trap.”

 

He was already talking like she had agreed. “Luke, you could die.”

 

The forest crowded close around them, the trees vibrant with life, the Force flowing above and below. Beyond the forest, the sisters leaned down to listen more closely, whispering gently at the edge of Leia’s mind.

 

_ Walking Storm Child. _

 

_ Walking Star Child. _

 

“I won’t fail,” Luke said, holding Leia’s hands in his. “I’m going to bring our father home.”

 

_ Walking Sky Child. _

 

“But even if I do…” Luke blinked, and Leia tasted salt. “If I fail, you can still finish things, Leia. You can end this. If you were lost, I wouldn’t be strong enough without you.”

 

“Don’t say things like that,” Leia said.

 

Luke’s hands were shaking when he let her go. “I love you, Leia. Forgive me.”

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Transmitting clearance code.”

 

The comlink fell quiet, and Shmi stared out the viewport of the courier ship at the planet below.

 

“It kind of looks like hell,” Owen said, his eyes also scanning the barren landscape below them.

 

“This place might come close,” Shmi said. Then, after a few moments of thought, she added, “The Force here is… twisted. It isn’t as all-consuming as Malachor, but…”

 

_ “Clearance code received. You are cleared for landing, courier. Proceed to the stronghold.” _

 

Owen picked up the comm. “Affirmative.” He shut off the transmission and managed not to look too smug. “I told you the codes would work.”

 

Shmi did her best to smile at him. “So you did.” She stood and wound back through the small ship, digging into her bag and pulling out her weapons. It had been at least since Rey was born that she’d held vibroblades, but her hands remembered the feel of them well.

 

“There’s a bit of turbulence, rising hot air from over the lava. This atmo is ridiculous. You still haven’t told me what we’re doing in the middle of Imperial space, landing at the freaky castle of Darth Vader himself.”

 

Shmi took out her shawl and began wrapping it about her shoulders, head, and face. She tucked some gloves into her belt and stood. “What have you heard about him?” she asked lightly. “Darth Vader?”

 

Owen shrugged. “He’s big, scary, and mean. Does whatever the Emperor wants.”

 

Shmi pulled herself into the co-pilot chair again. “That’s about what I’ve heard, as well.” She paused, waited for Owen to actually land the ship before she added the next part. No need to distract him from landing. As the ship rocked to a stop, she took the ends of her shawl in her hands, clenching her fingers.

 

“Owen.”

 

“Yeah?”

 

_ I am at one with the Force, and the Force is All. _ “Darth Vader is Anakin.”

 

Owen stared at her. “What?” He blinked, old pain startling him. “But… you said you felt him die…”

 

“I thought I did,” Shmi admitted. “Now I know that what I felt was his mind breaking. His memory is gone. He doesn’t remember being anyone other than Darth Vader. The sisters seem to think that he’s started to remember, but...” She fell silent, unsure of where to go from there.

 

Owen looked out the viewport, his face lined with worry and red light. “Oh,” he said. “Good thing I came with you.”

 

“Why?”

 

He shrugged. “Just a feeling.”

 

“He isn’t here,” Shmi admitted. “But someone… something else is. Something that’s been threatening our family for too long. I need you to stay with the ship, Owen. Keep the engine ready for takeoff.”

 

“I will.”

 

She was more grateful than she wanted to admit that he wasn’t arguing with her about this. Closing the space between them, she hugged him close, her knees digging into the pilot chair.

 

“Thank you,” she whispered.

 

He huffed, a bit embarrassed. “Go,” he said. “And don’t do anything too stupid, alright?”

 

The fortress loomed overhead, darkness curling around it, the Force heavy in the air and hard to breathe. Shmi barely felt like herself, pulled into the gaping doorway like this was another dream.

 

This was not a dream or vision, however, and it would be best if Shmi kept that at the front of her mind. She carried the Force with her like a torch, burning away strange ghostly tendrils.

 

It  _ did _ feel like Malachor, she thought. But not at all. The wound in the Force at Malachor had been caused by massive loss of life all at once, on an incalculable scale. This place, though… felt invasive. Something had been invited here.

 

What most called the ‘Dark’ side of the Force held no fear in itself for Shmi. But she could admit that there were things that crawled in it that she had no knowledge of. Things with teeth and malice.

 

The lower levels looked just like her dream. Long spirals of stairs through air that was neither cool nor warm. Stone columns stood mostly upright, lining a path over a gaping abyss to either side. At the end of the path lay a square slab of red rock, the color sickly and weak even as it thrummed behind her eyelids when she blinked. A Temple of some sort, though she didn’t want to contemplate what would be worshipped in a place such as this. The shadows of immaterial insects skittered and swarmed on the columns and under her feet. Sparks of _unlight_ drifted in the chasm below, the negative images of stars.

 

“I have waited centuries for you, child of many names.”

 

Shmi felt Light within her, balancing out the gloom around her. Letting go of her fear, she smiled into the darkness. Already it had made a dreadful mistake.

 

“You may call me Shmi Skywalker,” she said. Her strongest name. The one that she held dearest, and gave her the most power.

 

A figure moved behind the red altar, a thing of bones and dust that hadn’t been noticeable until it moved. Tall, dark-eyed, spindly limbs gathered under a too-large head. Its mouth and hands gleamed with what might have been blood.

  
“Shmi Skywalker. My name is Darth Plageuis.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Carth shrugged, one shoulder at a time. Clearly uncomfortable with the subject. "They say the Force can do terrible things to a mind. It can wipe away your memories and destroy your very identity."_
> 
>  
> 
> No, that couldn't be right...
> 
> But everything in his bones was screaming at him. Dead things were whispering behind his eyes and he was too shaken to blot their words from his mind...
> 
> Darth Malak might have been smiling behind his mask. There was no way to be sure. "Tell him, Jedi. Tell him the truth."
> 
> A glance back. Bastila stood with her eyes downcast. The most humiliated she had ever seemed...
> 
> She didn't have to say anything. Revan knew it was true.
> 
> Revan.
> 
>  _Darth_ Revan.
> 
> No.
> 
> Maybe...
> 
> Just Revan. Maybe.
> 
> "The lost one returns to the flock. There is no escape from the darkness. And now, shell of my former master," Darth Malak drew his lightsaber. "I will kill you at last, as is my right."


	11. There's Nothing Civil About This War

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “Yes. Armitage Hux.”
> 
> A shudder wracked through Hux’s entire body, his mouth too dry and his thoughts too fast. He couldn’t even really hold onto the anger. It kept falling away from him, only to come surging back when he didn’t want to feel this aching grief anymore.
> 
> “If you kill me,” Solum Ren whispered. “Your vengeance will be truly complete. You will lead the galaxy to greatness with the Knights of Ren as your weapon of justice.” Hux watched as Solum’s hands twitched, just a little. Like he wanted to reach out and touch Hux’s face. “I saw this future in my dreams… when I had dreams…” Brighter, more wicked gold cracked it's way into the Knight’s tortured eyes. “I saw you. I saw this moment. It is your destiny.”
> 
> “I don’t believe in destiny,” Hux said.
> 
> “That’s the funny thing,” Solum said. “It doesn’t matter if you believe in destiny or not. You have it, the lightsaber. You hate me, right? Use it. Smite me with it. Give in to your anger. Strike me down as many times as it takes...”
> 
> “I won’t kill you,” said Hux. His hands were shaking so badly. “I promised I wouldn’t.” Hux couldn’t tear his eyes away from the Knight’s face. He looked like he could be the same age as Hux, though the General knew that wasn’t the case. Still, the boyish face, fair hair and large amber-gold eyes made it easy to believe otherwise. Hux wondered what color those eyes had been originally.
> 
> Solum scowled, the boyishness replaced by a sulking child. “You tried to shoot me, earlier. Why not now?”
> 
> “That blaster was set to stun, you colossal idiot.”
> 
> Hux could actually hear the grinding of teeth. “That weakling Kylo… he’s poisoned your mind. Spread his weakness to you. Made you sentimental.”
> 
> As if that wasn’t the most hypocritical thing Hux had heard today.

Shmi pursed her lips. “A Sith.”

 

A wry near-smile wormed its way across his face. “I have made some use of their fallen order, yes. Darth Plageuis is not the only name I have gone by, however. You and I are much alike.”

 

Shmi shrugged, feeling the weight of the blaster slung over her shoulder. “I don’t see the resemblance.”

 

“You will. A long time ago I was called Sanokemeth. I think I would like to use that name again. It means ‘Dream-Eater’.”

 

Again, Shmi shrugged, slower this time. Deliberately lazy. “Whatever you say, Snoke.”

 

He scowled. Hard and cold. Oh, he did not like that. “That isn’t how you pronounce it. My name is Sano-”

 

“I heard you the first time, Snoke.” Names have power, Shmi thought as she drew out her blade and her smile. Deliberately mis-naming someone can _hurt_. And the creature in front of her was not taking it well. Good.

 

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

“I told you to remain on the command ship.”

 

Darth Vader did not flinch at the rebuke in his Master’s voice. “A small Rebel force has penetrated the shield and landed on Endor.”

 

“Yes. I know.”

 

Vader ventured to offer more information. “Prince Luke Organa is with them.”

 

“Ah… that is good.” The Emperor rose from his throne, and Vader knelt, as expected. “I hope that his presence does not cause you to do anything foolish, Lord Vader.”

 

“By the wisdom of your training, Master, I will remain strong.” Darth Vader _wanted_ to remain strong. He couldn’t remember much of what had happened during his confrontation with that Leia Skywalker child on Bespin, but it had been painful, and he had no desire to repeat it.

 

“If any troubling visions should arise around him, Lord Vader, let me know immediately. He is young, but cunning. Go to the forest moon and wait for him there.”

 

Darth Vader wasn’t entirely certain what ‘troubling visions’ might be, but that was fine. Master was wise, and always led Vader down the correct path. “He will… come to me?”

 

“I have foreseen it.” Vader nodded in acceptance, but his Master continued. “His compassion for you will be his undoing. Bring him before me, Lord Vader.”

 

What a strange thought, that anyone would have _compassion_ on Vader. He did not need compassion. How foolish, that someone could waste such an emotion on… a monster. A god of war. A weapon.

 

“Yes, my Master.”

 

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

 

“You are not mortal, child.” Snoke moved towards Shmi, and she imagined the sounds of bones clacking against each other like dry wood.

 

“I am not.” She narrowed her eyes. This skeletal creature before her wasn’t quite mortal, either. And yet…

 

Careful, Shmi let herself open up her mind, felt the muted but still-present song of her sisters, the caress of the Force against her skin and through her blood. No attack came from Snoke through the Force. Instead, he opened his mouth once again. “You are superior to those lower life forms.”

 

She held back a laugh. “I disagree.” Certainly, Shmi had gone through such a phase, back when she was younger and more reckless. When she thought herself truly invincible. Before she had learned.

 

“I have waited centuries for you…” He extended a thin, pale hand from the shroud of his robes. “Do you know why that is? What it is I want?”

 

A whisper. The brush of a feather-light touch against the backs of her hands, drawing her attention to the shrine-like structure where Snoke had been lurking. There were etchings in the stones, lines and shapes spiraling around each other in the dark. Some of them were darker than others. Even Shmi had a difficult time looking at them.

 

It wasn’t until Shmi looked away from them that she could see them. Equations. Calculations. Measurements.

 

A shiver ran through her, starting in her feet and travelling up to her teeth. “You were a Jedi,” she whispered. “You fell to the Dark Side.”

 

Snoke laughed. Shmi clenched her hands around the hilts of her vibroblades. He never took his eyes off of her, and the sound of his laugh echoed from far closer to them than their words did.

 

“Brief creatures close their eyes and flounder aimlessly in deep water and call it the Dark Side. I… _opened_ my eyes.”

 

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

 

Luke’s eyes stared up at him. It was impossible to tell what color they were, through the mask. “So you accept the truth. You _do_ know who you are.”

Darth Vader held very still for a moment. The Light was right before him, and his entire being cowered away from its dreadful burning. “I… I don’t…” He didn’t remember. He _couldn’t_ remember (couldn’t _let_ himself remember). His breath hissed in and out. The galaxy spun slowly around the fragment of time the two found themselves in. Vader straightened his shoulders, raised his head.

“My name is Darth Vader. That is the only name that matters. The only one that I have.”

“Then my father is truly dead?”

Vader looked at the boy in surprise. He sounded utterly heartbroken. How could he have expected a different outcome to this meeting?

“I have killed many fathers, your Highness,” Vader said. “Yours was simply one of them.”

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“That’s a bit pretentious,” Shmi gritted out between her teeth. Those equations and calculations… Snoke was utterly _mad_ if he thought he could pull it off. “Declaring one’s self as a God? I guess pretentious isn’t a strong enough word. Egomaniacal?”

 

Snoke ignored her verbal jab, drifting out over empty space. “Tell me… how does it feel? Infinite power...”

 

“I wouldn’t know,” said Shmi.

 

He ignored her again. Shmi wondered if they were having two different conversations. “Do you understand, yet, what it is _you_ want? All those people you want to save… to _control._ They will shrivel under your touch. You… you who could not even save a single child, your _own_ child…”

 

His words struck her like a physical blow, with added weight from the Force, at the wound she had been ignoring. She doubled over, her hands clenched over her stomach. _Anakin…_ His pain, her pain, both clawing along the inside of her skull and down her spine, numbing her hands even as she heard herself whimper in agony she had tried to suppress.

 

“Tell me where your sisters are, how to find them, and I will free your Sky-Child.”

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Welcome, young one. I have been expecting you.” The Emperor gestured at the binders on Organa’s hands. “You don’t need those. You are here as my guest, after all.”

Even as he spoke, the binders fell from Organa’s wrists. Vader stood behind the child, carefully positioned to cut off any thought of escape. Luke Organa was trapped. He should not have come here. The child was obviously thinking this was going to be some kind of political confrontation, a war of words. Those were the battles such a princeling would be used to fighting.

Vader knew, however, that words would do very little here. He rested his hand on his lightsaber.

“I look forward to beginning your training,” the Emperor continued. “In time, you will call me Master.”

“You are mistaken,” Organa said firmly. “I will never call anyone ‘Master’, least of all _you_ .”

The Emperor’s eyes gleamed yellow. “Oh, no, young one. You will find it is you who are mistaken… about a great many things. Your mind is not strong enough to fight me, boy.”

“I don’t intend to fight you. That is why _I_ am here. Leia would have fought you, because what she wants is different than what I want. I will not fight you. I am unarmed. Even if you handed me a lightsaber, I don’t know how to use one. I cannot be seduced by the power of the Dark side because I have no knowledge of the Force at all. There is nothing you have that I desire… except for one thing. I will leave this place with my father. Or I will die.”

The Emperor croaked a laugh. “Your dreams have told you what I want.”

“Yes,” Organa affirmed, his entire being alight with victory. Vader almost had to look away.

The Emperor leaned forward on his throne, his gaze burning. “Your dreams… _lied_ to you.”

 

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

 

“You say I have unlimited power? As much as I am inclined to disagree, maybe I’ll try to use it. I’ll send the name ‘Snoke’ to the subconscious mind of every sentient in the galaxy. Everyone you ever meet for the rest of your days will call you Snoke, like that sound a vomiting Bantha makes. Snoke. Even people who have never even heard of you will call you Snoke when you meet them, and they won’t know where the name came from.”

 

“Even _you_ couldn’t make that happen.”

 

“So you admit that I am, in fact, limited? That’s nice. Although, there’s just something about you that makes me want to try harder, Snoke. Maybe I _can_ make it happen. A curse to follow you the rest of your pathetic life in the shadows.”

 

“You try my patience,” he snarled, and Shmi tallied it up as another small victory. “Can you not see the truth? Has your time among mortals so blinded you?”

 

The only truth that Shmi could see was that Snoke’s plan was truly dangerous. Even though she was fairly certain that it wasn’t actually possible to accomplish, even the attempt would devastate the entire galaxy.

 

_I will strike down the Force itself and become a perfect being._

 

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

 

Organa swallowed, his voice stolen by surprise.

“I’m afraid that you will find that I am speaking the truth, Your Highness,” Palpatine sneered. “I shared those dreams with you. If your sister had come before me, with all her training and mental shields, then the best I could have hoped for would have been a stalemate. She is strong. While you… you are _weak,_ boy.”

_I am weak..._

_You have done such hurtful things. Those you knew you would rejoice at your death._

_Peace is a lie._

“Everything that has transpired has done so according to _my_ design. Come, your Highness. See for yourself.”  
  
  
Vader felt the child’s hesitation, but still he followed the Emperor’s softly worded command. Organa moved forward, as if pulled by chains, to look out the large viewport at the battle waging over the moon, flashes of explosions and streaks of blaster-fire. Vader moved as well, closing the distance between the three of them. He didn’t like this princeling and his Master being so near each other, where Vader couldn’t interfere if need be.

A foolish sentiment. Organa was no threat to the Emperor.

 _(No...it is the opposite you fear.)_  
  
**  
****“** This will be the end of your insignificant Rebellion,” smirked the Emperor.  
  
  
Organa stared out over the battle, his eyes wide, his face reflected in the window for Vader to see clearly. Silent explosions flashed before them, their detonations too distant and small to affect the station on which they stood. Organa’s eyes flickered, looked up to meet Vader’s gaze through the reflection. Vader found that he could not look away, transfixed by the pull of the Force around the young prince.

There was hope in those eyes. And in the back of Vader’s mind he thought he heard the soft murmur of a song, but he couldn’t quite hear the words…

Perhaps this is what his Master had meant by ‘disturbing visions’.

“You have no Master,” the blackbird responded. “How could you? This pathetic life-form huddled on his throne has less power than a strand of hair on your head.”

 _You lie,_ thought Vader. _You always lie. Master is wise. Master protects me, as pathetic and weak as I am._

The Emperor turned his head to fix his burning gaze on Vader. “Do you have something to say, Lord Vader?” _Has Organa given you any…  visions?_

_Bury it. He cannot see it._

_Don’t let anyone see it..._

“No, Master,” Vader said slowly.

“You dare lie to me?” The Emperor scoffed. He raised his hand, in such a disdainful, backhanded gesture, and with it came flickers of carefully-targeted shocks, the spasms of familiar pain dancing along the circuitry of both the organic remnants of his body and the suit that held it. With effort, Vader managed to only sink to his knees, though he couldn’t tell if he cried out. The entire exchange lasted less than thirty seconds, and Vader was used to far worse.

Why, then, did something in his head feel hot? An emotion he hadn’t felt in years and couldn’t recognize churned around inside him. A feeling… it must have been because of Organa. The furnace in his head and guts nearly burned him to ash at the thought of looking at Organa, but he had to. He had to to understand what this feeling was.

The Emperor had a look of cold satisfaction, but behind him, Organa was near incandescent with fury. His jaw was clenched, and his eyes were wide with rage rather than fear of the Emperor’s power as he seemed to be dividing his attention between Vader and his Master. In the scant few seconds it took for Vader to find his footing again, Organa had reined it in somewhat.

“With each passing moment, your Highness, you make yourself more my servant,” smirked the Emperor.

“I will _never_ serve you,” Organa spat. He was framed by light and terrible in his anger and... and compassion.  “I did not come here for you. I am here for my father, and I will not leave without him.”  
  
  
The Emperor chuckled. “You, like your father, are now mine. But unlike your father… you are not strong enough to stop me from taking what I want!”

 

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Darth Sidious and young Luke Organa will have their… confrontation, but we both know that nothing the two of them choose can decide the fate of Anakin Skywalker. What he’s done to himself is not so easily _undone_.”

 

Shmi felt herself shaking with rage. Felt the Force shifting around her, pressing close like so many bodies. The shadows were growing more opaque, harder to see through.

 

“Perhaps not,” she said. Patience. Wait for it. Let him make the next mistake. “Perhaps he will never be Anakin again. It doesn’t matter. I will still love him.”

 

Movement in the chasm below, like the stirring of a great beast, and Shmi smiled. Without another word, she struck, her blades cutting through the strange shadows. She flicked her wrist, slicing upward with the blades. Just as she’d felt, Snoke had snuck his physical body within her reach, his arrogance now leaving him reeling, grasping at his face with his hands as thick, brackish blood spilled down from where she’d nearly split his head in half.

 

He roared with rage, and Shmi smiled, her blades raised in a defensive position.

 

“You cannot kill me!” Snoke howled.

 

Shmi lowered one vibroblade to point it directly at his chest. Much to her amusement, he flinched. “Shall we test that theory?”

 

She expected that to push him further into dramatic, fiery rage. It didn’t. He lowered his hands. His eyes were the darkest thing in the room, and for a moment, Shmi felt nothing. There was no sound. No light. No Force.

 

“I was attempting to offer you something,” Snoke said. The cold in his voice crackled along the handles of her blades, pulling the heat from the metal and leaving her hands numb. “I will not attempt again. Goodbye, Shmi Skywalker.”

 

He turned, gathering his power around him, and stepped off the path, vanishing into the gaping abyss below without a sound.

 

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

  
**  
****“** Your fleet has lost. And your friends on the Endor moon will not survive. There is no escape, my young apprentice. The Rebel Alliance will die... as will your friends. And you… you will lead me to the Viem.”  
  
  
The Emperor stood, and raised his arm towards Organa. The prince’s eyes flashed towards Darth Vader once again, a smothered plea, a silent cry for mercy.

“I will not,” Organa said, trying so hard not to tremble. “I cannot lead you to the sisters. I don’t know how.”

“You will. It is inevitable.”

“I will die first.”

A smirk lit up the Emperor’s face. “You are not powerful enough to make that decision, foolish boy. You are mine, and you will lead me to the Viem. _When_ does not matter. It _will_ happen.”  
  
  
Vader knew what was about to take place, the Force shifting with the Emperor’s intent. A sharp crack, like a whip over the back of a slave, and Vader was surprised to feel himself flinch as lightning arced from his Master’s hands towards Organa. His own empathy shocked him. He had felt that same power in his own body enough times that he didn’t have to imagine what Organa was feeling as Force lightning struck him, the boy reeling back as torment snapped along every nerve.

Organa buckled, his knees giving out and his limbs convulsing both with agony and with the Force lightning’s effect on his motor functions. The Emperor wasn’t looking to damage him. No. Vader’s Master would keep the boy alive as long as possible. In as much pain as possible.

  
A well in the desert, Vader thought. Then wasn’t sure why. Sounds echoed against the walls, cracking against the barrier. Water and darkness was all around. The mask protects. But he couldn’t breathe...  
  
**  
**  
**“** Young fool… only now do you understand.”

_“Feel free to use as much pain as necessary to keep him under control, my pupil; just don’t kill him. After all, it’s not his body we need, but his mind…”_

_(You, too, wish for the black void... you tire of your travels, your burdens, the cries of the helpless, the cries of your dead. You too will be swallowed.)_  
  
  
Vader used every ounce of his willpower to keep from collapsing, to hold himself upright. And then that willpower was challenged even further when Organa reached up, frail, his hand held out to Darth Vader. His face was so pale, and his eyes unfocused.  
  
  
“Father, please,” he whispered. “Help me.”  
  
  
Darth Vader looked at the child suffering at his feet, and it was like looking up from the bottom of a dark pit and seeing starlight.  
  
**  
** **“** Ah, stubborn young thing…” The Emperor sneered. The bolts of lightning waned, and he leaned over Organa with a proprietary gleam in his yellow eyes. “You should surrender now. It is so much easier than what is to come. And if you do surrender now… I’ll let you end Anakin Skywalker’s unspeakable suffering. You could grant him a painless death.”

Vader watched the breath catch in Organa’s throat, saw the flash of agony worse than physical torture flash through his eyes before he closed them. His face was wet with tears and he weakly turned his face to the floor.

_I’m sorry, Father._

“No,” Organa sobbed. Frail and powerless. “I won’t ever serve you.”  
  
  
Although it would not have seemed possible, the Emperor’s lightning seemed to redouble itself in power, as if Vader’s Master were pouring everything he had, every ounce of his Force abilities into making this child suffer. The screaming started. Vader pulled his mind away from it, confused as to why this should affect him so. He’d watched countless people suffer under torture. What made this one different? Was it Organa’s dreadful compassion that shook Darth Vader? Made him tremble? Made him want to rip off his Master’s head to end it? There wasn’t enough air. Vader felt the need to claw the helmet from his head, to destroy everything…

Before his eyes, he saw red spreading out on the metal floor from the boy’s face, smeared in his weakening struggles and

and

A matching inky black spread through Luke’s hair, slow and inevitable. The shadow of an eclipse moving over the brightness...

  
“No…”

That one, quiet, pleading word couldn’t have come from Vader. But he heard it, nonetheless, in his own voice, broken and small and desperate. Impossible. He felt nothing. _Nothing._

  
  
  


 

 

Nothing.

  
  
  


 

 

 

 

 

Nothing but star-fire.

“ _You_ …” Vader’s body and voice burned. “You cannot have him!” Power roared in his ears, in his mind. Everything was blue-white, the starlight come for him. “You _cannot_ have him! I won’t let you!”

Mindless, Vader grabbed the Emperor, his hands grinding down on muscle and sinew. There was a loud howl, the only sound besides the continued crackle of Force lightning. Vader could barely feel it, the blinding in his mind enough to distance him from any pain. He wanted to tear his Master limb from limb, wanted to rip out his heart and throat and watch him bleed out. Wanted to rend him into tiny pieces while still alive and light the pieces on fire.

Vader picked up the Emperor and bodily slammed him to the durasteel floor. His lightsaber was in his hands, ready for death. Vader wanted to say something, but the thunder in his head was not thirsty for words. The lightsaber was brought down, over and over, onto the Emperor’s pathetic form. There was no elegance or refinement as Vader hacked away at the smoking remnants of his Master, heavy two-handed blows that carried all of his weight.

It wasn’t long, really, before Vader’s short-circuiting limbs stopped obeying him. He collapsed slowly, like the charred remains of a burned and blackened building, and as he landed with a thud he imagined that he could feel himself smiling.

After all, Luke was right over there. Vader could see him from where he lay. Luke was struggling to stand, but he looked like he would be alright.

  
Yes, Vader told himself, as his consciousness fled. Luke would be alright. He was strong, like his father.

 

 

 

 

 


End file.
